


Supergirl Age Play AU

by Virginia_Blue



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Big!Kara, Big!Maggie, F/F, Little!Alex, Little!Lena, Non-Sexual Age Play, Soul Bond
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-06
Updated: 2019-01-05
Packaged: 2019-03-27 18:34:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 35,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13886703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Virginia_Blue/pseuds/Virginia_Blue
Summary: Everyone knew that Lena Luthor was going to be somebody’s Big. Sure, bond roles weren’ttechnicallyknown until the bond happened, but come on. Could the high powered CEO of L Corp really be anything else?As it turns out, yes, yes she could.





	1. Setting the Stage

Everyone knew that Lena Luthor was going to be somebody’s Big. Sure, bond roles weren’t _technically_ known until the bond happened, but come on. Could the high powered CEO of L Corp really be anything else?

And just like everyone knew that Lena Luthor was destined to be a Big, they knew that Kara Danvers was destined to be a little. She was the assistant of one of the most prominent Bigs in the country, Cat Grant, and was just all around too kind and quiet to be anything but a little. 

As it turns out, everyone was dead wrong.

\---

“Hey Lena, what’s up?”

“Kara, hi!” 

Lena sat behind her desk with her phone at her ear.

“I was hoping I could drag you out for a night on the town tonight. My treat?”

The sound of wind whipping past Kara’s phone was heard before it quieted once again. “Um, sure. Text me a time and place and I’ll be there.”

“Wonderful. Hey, are you driving or something?”

“Yeah, driving!” A few background clatters sounded and Kara mumbled something indecipherable. “I have to go deal with this, umm, traffic, but I’ll see you tonight?”

Kara hung up her phone and slipped it into the concealed pocket in the small of her back before growling in frustration as another bullet bounced off of her. “Alright, I’ve had enough of this.” 

An hour later saw five bank robbers sitting comfortably in the back of squad cars and Kara back at the DEO headquarters.

“Took you a little longer than normal just to deal with a few humans.” Alex, as always, didn’t miss an opportunity to make Kara better. 

“Yeah, Lena called.”

“And you answered? While you were being shot at? While civilians were in danger?” 

Kara sighed, they had been through this before. “Look, I know you don’t understand my friendship with Lena or whatever, but she’s important to me. I’m not just going to not answer her call. I mean, what if she needed me?” 

“Hmm.” Alex hummed quietly in disapproval, but her phone ringing stopped her reply. She took one look at the screen and immediately brought it to her ear. “Hey Maggie, what’s up?”

Rolling her eyes at her sister taking a phone call from her Big, Kara got up from the table and started walking away. A shouted “We’re not done talking about this!” sounded behind her, but she just kept going. Alex didn’t understand-- Lena was her best friend. Her concern for her was totally normal. Right?

\---

“Kara Danvers. I must say, black really is your color. You should wear it more often.” 

Kara was wearing a tight knee length black dress and black heels. Closing the remaining distance between herself and Lena, she pulled the latter into a brief hug. “I don’t even begin to compare to you, Lena. I mean, wow.”

She leaned back and looked down at Lena, who was in a black jumpsuit with lace panels on the chest, back, and sleeves. Lena tucked her head and blushed at the praise before looping her arm through Kara’s and walking them inside the club. 

“I hope you’re ready to drink, Ms. Danvers, because I’ve had a _long_ day.”

They plopped down on adjacent bar stools and Kara looked at Lena in concern. “First, you know I can drink anyone under the table.” Lena inclined her head in agreement, they had in fact tested that on several occasions. “Second, and more seriously, do you need me to beat anyone up for you? Because I totally will.”

Lena, unaware that Supergirl had just offered to take down her business enemies, merely laughed. The sentiment did make her feel warm though.

“If the board doesn’t get their heads out of their asses and approve this deal by the end of the day Monday I just might have to take you up on that offer.” 

Turning and ordering two drinks, Kara slid one across to Lena. “Tell me what ails you, Ms. Luthor.”

\---

“And he had the _audacity_ to question my figures. Mine! As if everyone in that room wasn’t fully aware that even basic algebra is beyond his comprehension.” Lena had passed her usual limit by four drinks already and wasn’t showing any signs of stopping. 

Kara reached across the table they were now standing at, having danced together to a few songs and deciding to take a longer break, and pried Lena’s drink out of her hands. “While I totally agree that he’s an ass, I think you’ve had enough to drink tonight.”

Lena walked around the table and leaned her head on Kara’s shoulder. “You take such good care of me, Kara.” Her words were slurring just a bit and all of her anger from seconds ago disappeared in a flash as she breathed in Kara’s scent. Kara felt a strange feeling, like a tickling in the back of her brain, but before she could analyze it further two young men walked up to the other side of the table.

“My buddy was saying how much he wanted to tap that,” the blonde man gestured to Lena and Kara muttered “Charming” under her breath, “but I saved him. Wouldn’t want to stick your dick into a Luthor, right?”

Lena actually let out a whimper and turned further into Kara, seeking a comfort she couldn’t have defined if you had asked her to. Kara, for her part, glared at both men in pure anger. “I think you should leave.”

“But then,” the man showed no signs of having heard her, “I was all like, what about the blonde? She’s pretty hot.” 

The man then reached across the table and tried to grab Kara’s arm, but she quickly moved out of his reach. “I’m not going to say this again. I think you should leave.” 

Angry now, the second man spoke up. “Oh yeah? Or what?”

In a move that she knew Alex would berate her for if she found out, Kara allowed her eyes to heat up just enough that they flashed red. “Or I’ll make you.”

“Holy shit! Let’s get out of here.” The blonde man grabbed his friend and they ran away, leaving Kara holding a now crying Lena.

“Come on Lena, they’re idiots. Let’s get you home.”

After practically carrying Lena to the car and then into her apartment, Kara gently led Lena to her bedroom. Sitting her on the bed, Kara started taking off her shoes while trying to talk her down from her emotional state.

“Lena, you know those guys were just idiots, right?” In response all Lena did was sniff and fidget with her hands. Kara slid off her second shoe and pulled her into a standing position so she could unzip her jumpsuit. 

Unzipping and sliding the piece of clothing down Lena’s body, Kara started to get really worried by her unresponsiveness. It wasn’t like Lena not to have a clapback for random assholes, and it caused Kara physical pain to see Lena so sad.

When the jumpsuit was pooled at Lena’s feet, Kara helped her step out of it and realized just how shaky she was on her feet. “Alright, let’s get you all tucked in.” Lena laid back and curled into a ball on her side as Kara pulled the blanket up. 

Not sure why she was doing it even as she did it, Kara leaned down and pressed a kiss to Lena’s forehead. “Are you going to be okay, baby girl?”

Lena smiled when Kara kissed her and hummed a little in agreement. “Jus’ don’t leave. Kay?”

Lena was already asleep by the time that Kara responded. “Never.”


	2. Bonding

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our leading ladies finalize their bond and we get to meet little Lena. Spoiler alert-- she's adorable.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm at work right now but I couldn't stop thinking about finishing this chapter... An hour later and here we are. (Just don't tell my boss, haha)

Kara barely slept that night because she kept waking up to check on Lena. She woke up in a panic once or twice an hour and wasn’t able to calm down until she saw that Lena was sleeping soundly. The tickling in the back of her brain had returned, but she was too concerned with Lena’s emotional state to truly ponder her own.

A sleepy, mumbled, “Kara?” a little before noon was enough for Kara to shoot up from her spot asleep on the couch and zip to Lena’s room at super speed.

The sight when she walked in had her screeching to an immediate stop though. Lena Luthor was rubbing her eyes and opening and closing her mouth in a half awake state and it was the most adorable thing Kara had ever seen. 

“Hey Lena.” Kara spoke softly as she padded across the room to Lena’s bed. She was wearing a pair of shorts and long sleeve tee shirt that she had nabbed from Lena’s closet the night before. 

Lena dropped her hands and blinked up at Kara in confusion. “What happened?”

“Well,” Kara perched on the edge of Lena’s bed and reached up to brush a piece of hair out of Lena’s face, “ _someone_ had a little too much to drink last night.”

Lena grabbed Kara’s hand and kept it against her cheek, leaning into it and smiling shyly. “Sorry.” Only with the way she was mumbling it sounded more like “Sowwy.”

“Mmm. It’s okay. You had a rough day.” The two women sat and looked at each other for a minute before Kara shook herself and remembered that Lena never had a shower before going to bed. “How about we get you in the shower to wake up a bit?”

Frowning, Lena shook her head.

“No shower?” Kara leaned down and took a dramatic sniff, “But you stink!”

“Meanie!” Lena laughed and pushed Kara away from her before throwing her legs over the side of the bed and trying to stand up. She wobbled a little bit but Kara steadied her.

“I want bath.”

“You want a bath?” Lena had her hands on her hips and was glaring at Kara in a way that Kara found extremely amusing. 

“Yep.” Lena popped her p.

Kara snorted and walked ahead of Lena to the bathroom. She stopped the drain and turned on the tap, and then sat on the edge while she waited for it to fill. Lena stood awkwardly in the middle of the room in her underwear and watched Kara draw her bath silently. Her brain was getting cloudier by the second and she furrowed her brow in concentration as she tried to fight it. 

Once it was filled up and at a decent temperature as deemed by Kara, Kara turned off the tap and walked toward the door. “I’ll just be out here, call me if you need anything.”

“Kara?”

Kara paused with her hand on the knob and looked back at Lena. “Yeah?”

“Stay?” 

Lena sounded so unsure of herself, and so utterly _young_ , that that single word drove right into Kara’s soul. It was then, standing in Lena Luthor’s bathroom and watching her shift nervously from foot to foot, that the tickling in the back of Kara’s brain became overwhelming and suddenly she knew. She just _knew_.

Meeting Lena’s eyes, everything fell into place and Kara gasped at the intensity of the feeling. Lena must have felt it too, because all at once the shreds of adulthood she was trying to hold onto fell away and she was looking at Kara with childlike wonder. 

“Pwease?

Lena’s voice shook and her bottom lip quivered in uncertainty. “Pwease Mommy?”

And with that one simple declaration Kara was closing the gap between them and swooping Lena into her arms. “Of course, baby girl. Mommy’s here.”

After standing and holding each other for several long moments, Kara leaned back and fully undressed Lena in quick, efficient movements. Now holding her naked little, Kara picked Lena up and carried her to the tub where she gently lowered her into the water. 

The bath was largely silent as Big and little processed the enormity of their feelings and the newness of their bond. As Kara lathered soap across Lena’s pale skin and washed her dark hair, she wondered how she had never seen it before. 

Lena had always been her weakness. She had risked exposing herself as Supergirl to her countless times, she had always rushed off no matter what she was doing if Lena needed her. Alex had gotten onto her about her strange behavior in regard to Lena, but she had always defended herself by saying that she was just being a good friend. 

But now, as she tickled Lena’s sides and her little girl laughed with such open hearted joy, she knew how wrong she was. She wasn’t being a good friend-- she was being a good Mommy. It just took an emotional night of drinking and taking care of Lena to finalize the bond and make her realize that. 

Once Lena was clean, Kara pulled the stopper on the tub and moved at super speed to grab a towel from the hall closet. 

“Mommy fas’?” Lena’s adorably confused face when Kara returned with the towel made Kara’s heart swell even more. She just nodded in response and said “Mommy is very fast, yes.”

Lena smiled and held up her arms in a signal that she wanted Kara to pick her up. Kara opened up the towel and grabbed Lena around the middle with it before scooping her up and carrying her to the bed. Tossing her on top of the blanket, Kara opened the towel and leaned down to blow a raspberry on Lena’s stomach. 

Squirming and laughing, Lena wiggled away from Kara’s face. Laughing along with her little girl, Kara zoomed away and came back with a pair of sweatpants and a tee shirt. Lena frowned at them and Kara nodded in apology. 

“I know they’re boring baby, sorry about that. How about tomorrow we go shopping? We can get you some new clothes, maybe some toys?”

Lena allowed herself to be dressed by Kara, and her eyes lit up when Kara said toys. “Oh yeah, you want toys? Maybe some duckies for the bath?”

Clapping her hands in excitement, Lena nodded her total agreement to the duckies. 

Kara successfully maneuvered Lena into her tee shirt and realized that she didn’t have any diapers. She was pretty sure that Lena was somewhere in the toddler range, if even, which meant that she was definitely going to need to be diapered. Not being able to leave Lena and go get any, Kara pulled the pants on her and then did what she always did in a time of need. She called her sister. 

After three rings Alex’s phone was picked up by Maggie.

“Hey Kara, what’s up?”

“Pleeeaaaaase tell me that Alex isn’t dropped right now.”

“Nah, she’s still her annoying adult self,” a muffled “Hey!” was heard in the background. “Why, do you need her?”

“Please.”

“One Agent Danvers coming right up.”

As Kara stood with her phone in her hand Lena climbed off the bed and clumsily ran out of the bedroom into the living room. Kara followed.

“Hey Kara, Maggie said you wanted me?”

“Yes. I need your help.”

Lena grabbed a pen, put it in her mouth, and started chewing on it. “No sweetheart don’t eat that!” Kara rushed over and removed the choking hazard from Lena’s mouth.

“What’s going on? Who are you calling sweetheart?”

Kara took a deep breath. “I’ll explain later. Right now I desperately need you to bring me diapers size A6, baby wipes, and maybe a pacifier or two.” Lena had now moved on to sitting in the middle of the floor and chewing on the remote, so Kara thought that something to occupy her mouth might be a good idea. 

“Umm… okay? But why can’t you just get the stuff yourself?”

Now pushing all of the buttons on the remote, which was dangerous since it controlled the lights and windows as well at the tv and sound system, Lena seemed hell bent on destruction. “Because _someone_ ,” Kara poked Lena in the stomach and took away the remote, making Lena giggle, “wants to be a pesky little girl and take up all of Mommy’s attention.”

She kept tickling Lena, who swatted at her hands and cried out “Mommy no!”

“Holy shit.” Alex’s voice sounding from the phone reminded Kara that she was still on the other end. “Holy shit, did you bond?”

“Just bring the stuff to Lena’s apartment as soon as you can, will you?”

Alex spluttered for a second before saying “Yeah, totally” and hanging up. 

\---

Alex knocked on the door to Lena’s apartment almost exactly an hour later with two bags in her hand. Kara opened it less than a second later and pulled Alex in. She spit out a quick “Make yourself at home” before taking the bags and disappearing in a blur. 

“O… kay?” Alex sat down on the couch and waited for Kara to return. 

She only had to wait for about two minutes before Kara walked out of the bedroom easily carrying Lena Luthor on her hip. Lena. Fucking. Luthor. 

Actually, Alex thought as Kara popped a pacifier into Lena’s mouth and put on Nick, Jr., it made a certain amount of sense. Kara’s weird attachment to Lena and willingness to disregard protocol for her had to have been some early sign of their bond. 

Once Lena was sucking away on her pacifier and had her eyes happily glued to the tv, Kara plopped down next to Alex on the couch.

“So,” Alex began, “when the hell did this happen?”

Kara looked at her watch. “About two hours ago.” 

“You and Lena. Honestly I feel stupid I didn’t see it before.”

“You and me both. I look at her now and I just feel this overwhelming surge of…” Kara trailed off, unsure how to put her powerful emotions into words. 

“Love?” Alex filled in for her and Kara nodded gratefully. 

“Yeah, love. I don’t know how I lived without it before.”

“You know as well as I do that bonds manifest at weird times. Sometimes they’ll form the second two people meet, and other times it takes years to cement. Just be happy that you have it now.”

Kara let Alex’s words sink in as she sat and watched Lena laugh at something on tv. Sensing her Mommy’s gaze, Lena turned and smiled at Kara as widely as she could without losing her pacifier. Suddenly uninterested in the tv, Lena crawled on her hands and knees to the couch and held up her arms for Kara to pick her up. 

Laughing at her little’s antics, Kara leaned down and scooped her up, cradling her on her lap. Lena turned her face into Kara’s neck and nuzzled her hair. After a minute she became aware of Alex’s presence and she shyly looked at her through the curtain that was Kara’s hair.

Alex smiled at her and she turned her face to hide further into Kara’s neck. Chuckling just a bit, Alex asked “How old do you think she is?”

Kara blew out a breath. “Younger than you by a long shot.” Alex’s little state hovered around five or six, but Lena seemed well below that. “18 months maybe?” 

Lena peeked back out at Alex and Alex stuck out her tongue. Laughing, Lena hid behind Kara’s hair again. 

“I think I’ll take her shopping tomorrow and see what kind of clothes and toys and what not she gravitates toward.”

“The press will have a field day if they see you.”

Lena looked back at Alex, and this time she stayed watching her and didn’t hide away. 

“I know.” Kara sighed deeply, troubled by the idea of their lives being overridden by the press so soon after bonding. “But we need stuff, and my little girl deserves the best.” She patted Lena’s butt and bounced her up and down a few times. 

Tentatively reaching out a hand, Lena touched Alex’s face curiously. Alex caught her hand and gave her palm a kiss before releasing her. “Hi Lena.”

Smiling at her sister and her little, Kara sat Lena up and caught her attention. “Lena, this is Mommy’s sister, Alex. Can you say Alex?”

Lena mumbled something around her pacifier that sounded like “Awiss” and Alex smiled at the effort. 

“That’s right. Aren’t you a smart cookie?” Alex pinched Lena’s arm lightly and the girl laughed.

“She’s going to stay dropped for at least 24 hours this first time, then she’ll fall into her rhythm.”

Kara nodded at Alex’s words. It was common knowledge that the first drop lasted a minimum of 24 hours no matter what, but after that, drop length and drop frequency depended on the individual little. Alex dropped only once or twice a week on average, and nearly always only in the presence of Maggie. There were some littles who dropped more like once a day, though, and still others that rarely weren’t little. Kara didn’t think that Lena would stay little all the time, she did have a company to run after all, but with the way she felt holding her in her lap right now, Kara couldn’t help but to hope that she would at least get her little girl more than once a week. 

“We’ll work it out. Won’t we, baby girl?”

Lena yawned and tiredly nodded. 

“Thanks Alex.”

“Anytime, Kara. I’m happy for you. A bond is the most incredible and rewarding thing in this world.”

Kara hugged Lena to her chest as she corrected Alex. “In any world.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a few more chapters planned out, but after that I'm open to suggestions. Have anything you want to see Mommy Kara and little Lena do? Let me know and I'll see if I can make it happen.


	3. Shopping

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kara takes Lena shopping, as promised. 
> 
> Also, Kara learns that Lena loves chocolate, hates pants, and is adorable even when she's throwing a tantrum.

After a very messy macaroni and cheese dinner, in which more cheese ended up on Lena’s hands and the floor than ended up in her mouth, Kara and Lena settled in for the night. Kara cleaned up Lena’s face and hands and the kitchen floor and then changed her cheesy clothes. Which ended up being just a new shirt after Lena adamantly refused to put on pants. 

After Lena was fed, cleaned, and mostly clothed, Kara carried her into the living room and wrapped a blanket around both of them on the couch. Pulling up Netflix, Kara browsed the kid’s section looking for a suitable movie for her little. 

Coming across Frozen, Kara smirked. She very clearly remembered an adult Lena going on a drunken tirade once about how overrated it was, and she was curious to see whether little Lena shared that same opinion.

An hour later when Lena was staring at the screen in awe as Elsa built her ice castle, Kara knew that little Lena had a very different opinion about Frozen. And when she whispered a quiet “No…” when Olaf started melting, Kara knew that she had just gained something fantastic to lord over adult Lena when she aged back up. 

No Frozen magic was enough to keep Lena’s attention forever though, and it was about 20 minutes before the end of the movie when Kara looked down and saw that Lena’s eyes were firmly closed and she was breathing deeply. 

Smiling at her baby girl, who was laying with her head in Kara’s lap, Kara decided to enjoy the moment for a bit longer. She would just finish the movie and then get up and take Lena to bed. Piece of cake.

Kara woke up from sun coming through the windows the next morning. Blinking and looking around in confusion for a minute, her eyes then lit up in recognition. Frozen. She must have fallen asleep while watching Frozen. 

And ended up laying on her back with Lena sprawled out across her chest, it would seem. Blowing Lena’s hair out of her face, Kara gently floated up and turned to deposit Lena back on the couch. Pausing for a second to make sure she was successful in not waking her little, Kara breathed a sigh of relief when Lena merely opened and closed her mouth a few times and then rolled over and went back to breathing deeply. 

Padding silently to the kitchen, Kara grabbed Lena’s kitchen tablet-- because of course she had one for just about every room of the apartment-- and pulled up a search engine. She had a lot of little stuff to buy and wanted to make sure she did her research. 

Thirty minutes later when Lena whimpered and said “Mommy?,” Kara had a solid game plan for the day and didn’t hesitate to rush over and gather her little in her arms. 

“Hey baby, did you have good sleeps?”

Lena rubbed her eyes but nodded her head. Kara patted her butt and tsked when she found a full diaper. “Let’s get you into a nice clean diaper.”

Still not fully awake, Lena just nodded again and allowed Kara to carry her into her bedroom. Kara laid a nearby towel down and then placed Lena gently on top of it. 

Moving at just faster than human speed, Kara had Lena cleaned and changed in less than a minute. It wasn’t until she moved to put her in a pair of jeggings that Lena finally woke up enough to process what was going on. 

“No pats!” Lena pouted up at Kara and kicked her legs wildly, trying to make it so Kara couldn’t get her pants on. Kara knew full well that she could easily super speed them on, but she also knew that she would not hear the end of it from a whining and crying Lena all day if she did that. 

“But baby girls need pants, especially if they’re going out in public.”

Lena furrowed her brow in confusion. 

“You ‘member, right? Mommy’s going to take you shopping today to get some new clothes and toys, but I can’t do that if you don’t put on pants. So what do you say?” Kara held up the pants and Lena looked like she was seriously weighing her options, especially that part about toys. 

When Lena opened her mouth to respond Kara got hopeful, but those hopes were immediately dashed when Lena simply repeated “No pats.”

Sighing dramatically at the stubbornness of her little, Kara decided to pull out the big guns. “How about we make a deal. I’ll make you _whatever_ you want for breakfast if you put on-- and leave on-- your pants.” Kara tacked the ‘leave on’ clause onto her statement as a precaution. Little Lena was still Lena Luthor, billionaire businesswoman, and Kara had no doubt that she was able to spot loopholes even as a toddler. Especially when it came to something as important as pants. 

Lena narrowed her eyes and looked at Kara in suspicion, as though not totally sure what she meant, so Kara decided to entice her with a few options. “Anything you want. Oatmeal, bananas and peanut butter, chocolate chip pancakes, anything.”

Lena’s eyes lit up in excitement. “Choc cha?”

It took Kara a second to decipher what Lena said, but when she did she smiled broadly in amusement. “Yeah, you want chocolate chips?” Kara had made them once for Lena a couple of months back, so it must be that fuzzy adult memory that Lena was tapping into. 

“Choc cha!” Clapping her hands and laughing, Lena answered Kara’s question.

“Well alright then, but a deal’s a deal. Pants go on before this belly,” Kara poked Lena’s stomach, “gets any of Mommy’s delicious pancakes.”

Lena stuck her legs out without question and allowed Kara to slide the pants on. Once Lena had pants on, Kara decided to finish the job and quickly switched out her shirt too. Picking her up carrying her toward the kitchen, Kara couldn’t help but to smile. Even when she was being a brat and exacting her vendetta against pants she was the cutest thing in existence.

“Chocolate chip pancakes coming right up. Here you go,” Kara deposited Lena into a seat at the counter, which reminded her that she needed to get a high chair. “You sit right here and Mommy will get started on the cakes, kay?”

“Kay.”

Lena dutifully stayed seated while she watched Kara cook with fascination. When Kara grabbed the hot pan by the metal base, Lena gasped in fear. Looking over to her little, Kara said “You remember how Mommy is super fast?”

Wide eyed, Lena nodded. “Well, Mommy is super strong too, and she can’t get burnt. See?” Kara brought her hand up and down on the hot pan a few times before setting it back on the stove. “Baby girls can still get burnt though, so be careful, okay?”

Lena nodded, but the thread of their conversation was immediately forgotten when Kara pulled out the bag of chocolate chips. 

“Choc cha! Choc cha!” In her excitement, Lena hopped up and down in her chair so fast that she started to tip sideways, but Kara was there in a flash to sit her back up and give her a look of warning. “Careful Lena! I know chocolate chips are exciting but you don’t want to fall off the chair and break your pretty head, do you?”

Lena just pointed at the abandoned bag of chocolate chips and grinned at Kara. “Choc cha?” Kara sighed and went back to cooking, careful to keep a closer eye on Lena this time. 

In short order Kara was plating, cutting, and syruping three pancakes and setting them down in front of Lena. Eyes wide in wonder and excitement, Lena went to grab one of the pancake pieces with her hand. 

“Ah ah ah! Here, try to use the fork.” Kara handed Lena a fork, really just trying to see if Lena could handle utensils. She managed two awkward bites with the fork before getting impatient and throwing her fork to the side. Well, Kara thought, better than nothing. 

After cleaning Lena up and changing her shirt once again-- Kara wondered if she should add bibs to her shopping list-- Kara super sped her way through her own getting ready process. Then, after brushing Lena’s teeth and pulling her hair back into a quick braid, they were ready to go. 

\---

“Alright sweetheart, you can pick out _one_ more.” 

After shopping for an hour and getting some new clothes and toys, Kara and Lena stood in front of a pacifier display. Lena was trying to see how many she could get away with grabbing. The answer, so far, was four.

Lena had already picked a purple bedazzled one, a green one with a rocket ship on it, a plain black one, and a red one with white zigzags. Kara had initially only planned on letting her get three, but Lena’s pout was too hard to resist. 

Looking up and down the display, Lena’s eyes suddenly honed in on one in the far back corner and she lunged for it, knocking several others off their hooks in the process. Kara was about to admonish her, but then she saw which pacifier Lena had grabbed and her heart almost exploded from love.

Because in Lena’s hand was a blue pacifier with an infinitely familiar “S” shaped logo on it. Lena held it up to Kara proudly and said “Mommy!” before poking Kara in the chest. Kara nodded silently, almost in tears she was so happy, and pulled Lena in for a hug.

Going shopping today was the best decision Kara had ever made.

\---

Going shopping today was the worst decision Kara had ever made. I mean, really, who the hell would think taking an adult sized one year old out in public for the first time would be a good idea?

Kara was waiting on the sales associate to finalize a few orders for delivery to Lena’s apartment, but unfortunately it was taking much longer than expected. And seeing as how they had been shopping for several hours and it was now lunch time, Kara had a tired and hungry little on her hands. 

A little that was currently crying and trying her damndest to knock every item off of every shelf in the entire store. “Lena, stop that!”

Kara pinched the bridge of her nose and looked at the associate. “Are we almost done here? I need to get someone fed and laid down for her nap.”

The associate looked at her sympathetically and apologetically. “Yes of course, I’m sorry this has taken so long. All I need is the signature of the card owner and we’re good to go.”

“The crying toddler is the card owner,” Kara thought that Lena wouldn’t mind her using her funds to buy stuff for her, “will the signature of the card owner’s Big be enough?”

The associate looked torn, looking back and forth between his screen and Lena-- who was now laying on the floor at Kara’s feet and kicking a nearby clothing rack. “I’m really not supposed to…”

Kara leaned closer to him. “Look, I know you’re just doing your job, but it’s unnecessary. See the name on the card?” The man looked down and then widened his eyes when he focused on the small name in the corner. “Exactly. This card belongs to Lena Luthor, CEO of L Corp. And this crying little,” Kara gestured at the floor, “is Lena Luthor. I don’t think she’ll be too happy to hear about this when she ages back up.”

“Oh, um, of course. Just sign here.” The associate looked truly frightened by the prospect of displeasing a Luthor, and Kara quickly signed on the indicated line. 

“Your purchases will be delivered to the address you provided in two to three business days. Do you need help carrying your items to your vehicle?” Now knowing who he was dealing with, the associate seemed eager to make up for his earlier slowness.

Kara didn’t necessarily like the strong reactions the Luthor name had, but right now she decided to take advantage of it. “Please, that would be amazing.”

While Supergirl could easily carry the small handful of shopping bags she had from this store and the still crying little to the car, for Kara Danvers to do so would arouse suspicion. So she allowed the associate to grab her bags from her, and she kneeled down next to Lena, who was still crying but no longer screaming.

She put a hand on her back and rubbed it soothingly. “Lena, baby, do you want to go home now? Get some food, maybe have a little sleep?”

Lena sniffed and peeked through her hair at Kara. “No seep.”

Kara laughed, because of course Lena would say she wasn’t tired. “Okay, no sleep. How about we eat some food and then watch Frozen… Does that sound good?”

Wiping at her snotty face with her sleeve, Lena nodded slightly in agreement and held her arms up to Kara. Kara picked her up and carried her like a baby all the way to the car, where she loaded Lena into the back and then put the bags in the trunk. 

“Thanks for the help.”

“Of course. I hope you and Ms. Luthor get home safely. Though,” the associate paused with a curious face as though unsure if he should ask a question. 

Sighing, Kara made a “go on” gesture.

“I’m sorry, it’s just that… I wasn’t aware that Lena Luthor was a little. I mean, she just seems so… in control and powerful.”

“And littles can’t be powerful? You are aware that they aren’t dropped full time, right?”

“Yes, of course. I didn’t mean, it’s just that, I--” He started panicking and stuttering and Kara took pity on him and cut him of. “It’s okay. When you bond you’ll understand. But to address your first comment, nobody knows she’s a little, not yet anyway. I’m sure it’ll come out sooner rather than later, but for now if you could avoid spreading this around or going to the press that would be great. I’m actually surprised we didn’t run into them today.” Kara added the last sentence as an afterthought. Their shopping trip had lasted hours and there hadn’t been a single camera flash. Not that she was complaining, of course, it was definitely a pleasant surprise.

“I would never!” He seemed offended that Kara would suggest such a thing and she just smiled as she walked away and toward the driver’s door. “You’d be shocked what people would do for some money or fame.”

Pulling out of the parking lot, Kara glanced in the rear view mirror and caught sight of Lena sitting in the back. Her little’s face was a bit snotty and blotchy, but tears were no longer actively falling so Kara took that as a good sign. 

Reaching into her pocket and pulling one of their new purchases out, Kara held it out to Lena. Seeing it, Lena smiled and laughed, earlier upset completely forgotten as she popped it into her mouth. Kara periodically glanced in the mirror at Lena, and her chest warmed every time she saw the symbol of the House of El bobbing up and down in her little’s mouth.

\---

After they had lunch, Kara put on Frozen as promised. Lena was asleep ten minutes in and Kara carried her to her bed. Looking down at her sleeping girl, Kara pulled out her phone and snapped a picture, immediately setting it as her background and sending it to Alex.

Casting one more look at Lena, who was sleeping peacefully with her Supergirl pacifier locked in her mouth, Kara returned to the living room to watch something not animated. Lena started stirring an hour and a half later, so Kara walked into her room and knelt down next to the bed. 

Reaching up and gently stroking her thumb across Lena’s cheek, Kara smiled at her when her eyes opened. “Did you have a good nap?”

Lena nodded and wrapped her arms around Kara’s neck, trying to hug her closer. Kara complied with the nonverbal request and crawled into bed with Lena so she could properly snuggle her little. 

Snuggling soon turned into wrestling, which soon turned into tickling, which soon turned into an exhausted and giggly little squirming on the bed and calling out “Sop!” Kara stopped her tickling, but she didn’t release Lena from her grasp. 

Lena turned in Kara’s arms and put a hand on Kara’s face, looking at her with a serious expression. “Wuv you Mommy.”

Kara grinned and started placing kisses on every inch of Lena’s face that she could, throwing a few “I love you toos” into the mix. 

\---

After dinner that night Kara played blocks with Lena for a while before letting her continue to play on her own while she watched some tv. A little while later Lena stopped playing and sat for a long second with a confused face. 

Still looking kind of confused and out of it, she crawled on her hands and knees over to the couch and climbed up so she was laying with her head in Kara’s lap and looking up at her. Lena closed her eyes for a few seconds with a furrowed brow before opening them back up and staring at Kara with a decidedly adult level of clarity. 

“Kara?” Lena sounded a little unsure and confused coming out of her first drop, and Kara tried to be as gentle as she could. 

“Yeah?”

“We… we bonded?” Lena’s dropped memories were present, but they were all a bit fuzzy and she was having a hard time sorting through them at the moment. 

“We did.” Kara nodded in affirmation.

Lena looked down at herself and saw that she was wearing a fuzzy onesie. “So you’re my Mommy?”

“It would appear that way, yes.”

“Hmm.” Lena hummed quietly before making eye contact with Kara once again. “And are you actually Supergirl or is that memory not right? Everything’s a bit mushy in my head right now.”

“No, your memory is right. I’m Supergirl.”

Lena smiled and Kara sagged in relief, she had been worried that Lena would be angry for keeping her identity hidden from her. “I always knew you were special.”

Letting out a small laugh, Kara leaned down and kissed the end of Lena’s nose. “Not as special as you.”

Lena practically glowed at the praise and then yawned widely. “Mmm. We’re going to need to have an adult conversation about all of this, but I think that’s going to have to wait.” 

“Until when?” Kara was carding her fingers through Lena’s hair and the woman seemed to be losing a fight with something in her mind. 

“Morrow?” Lena turned her face into Kara’s stomach and nuzzled her, allowing her eyes to slide closed.

“Of course baby, we can talk tomorrow.” Kara kept playing with Lena’s hair, and within minutes she was fast asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It'll take a few chapters, but once Kara and Lena are settled into their new bond we'll get to meet some more characters.


	4. Rhythm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lena starts to settle into her drop rhythm, and there are a few bumps along the way.

Kara went into Lena’s room just before seven on Monday morning to wake her up. Lena had aged back up the night before but had still seemed pretty out of it, so Kara wanted to check on her and see if she was up for going to work.

“Lena, sweetheart, it’s time to wake up.” She gently shook Lena’s arm and grinned when Lena slowly opened her eyes and yawned widely. 

“Mmm, what time is it?”

“It’s almost seven. I wanted to come check on you and see if you were up to going to work today.”

“It’s Monday?” Lena awakened more fully at that and looked at Kara with a higher level of clarity. 

Kara motioned for Lena to sit up and then sat in the now vacant spot where her feet were. “Yes, it’s Monday. But you also just came down off of a long drop,” Kara motioned to Lena’s onesie, which she hadn’t taken off of the sleeping woman the night before, “and if you’re not feeling up to working then that’s okay.”

Lena nodded, touched by Kara’s care. “I want to go. I’m still a bit fuzzy, but I need to learn how to balance all of this.”

“Alright.” Kara trusted Lena. “I’ll go make breakfast while you get ready.” 

“Wait, Kara.” Lena grabbed Kara’s arm to stop her from leaving and looked a little sheepish. “Can you help me with… this?” She gestured to her onesie-clad figure and Kara smiled. 

“Of course. Come on, let’s get you up.”

Helping Lena get out of her onesie and diaper turned into helping Lena pick out adult clothes and get dressed, which then became helping Lena do her hair and makeup. Lena knew that she was fully capable of doing it all herself, but she was still feeling a bit dependent on Kara-- whether a result from the length of her drop or her just waking up she didn’t know. Kara, for her part, loved taking care of her baby. Even if her baby wasn’t currently a baby. 

Once Lena was dressed and ready, Kara sent her into the kitchen to pick what she wanted for breakfast while Kara quickly got dressed and ready herself. A few minutes later she met Lena in the kitchen.

“Did you decide?”

“Fruity Pebbles.” Lena seemed genuinely excited by the prospect and Kara rolled her eyes as she moved to grab the cereal box and the milk. 

While she poured the bowl she teased Lena, “Are you sure you’re not still a child right now?,” and gave a pointed look at the sugary mess in the bowl. 

Lena jokingly slapped her arm and snagged the now full bowl from her. “I will have you know that Fruity Pebbles are good for all ages.”

“Mmmkay. If you say so.” 

But, of course, Kara poured herself a bowl too. 

While Kara rinsed out their bowls after they were done, she turned her head to look at Lena, who was sitting at the counter. “I’m taking you to work today. I need to have a discussion with your assistant.”

Lena sighed in exasperation and rolled her eyes. “Is that really necessary?”

Finished washing, Kara put the bowls on the drying rack and walked across the kitchen to lean on the counter opposite Lena. She looked her in the eye seriously and said “Yes. You are my baby girl, and if _anything_ happens to you I need to be the first call.”

Warmth flooded Lena at the care Kara was showing, and she realized just how important this was for her. So she nodded and said “I trust you.”

Kara leaned across the counter and placed a kiss to Lena’s forehead. “Thank you.” Leaning back and grabbing her bag from a nearby chair, she looked back at Lena, who was smiling happily to herself. “Ready to go?” 

Lena took a deep breath and nodded once. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”

When they were almost to L Corp, Kara asked something that had been on her mind for a while. “We don’t really know your rhythm yet and it could take a while to settle out anyway, so you know there’s a chance you could end up dropping at work.” She didn’t word it as a question but Lena nodded anyway. “So I guess the question is-- do you want to hide it if that happens?” 

Lena looked a bit confused so Kara clarified. “Are you okay with people knowing your status?”

“Ah.” Lena realized what Kara was getting at and she thought seriously for a minute before responding. “I can’t say I’m necessarily looking forward to it, but I recognize that it’s going to happen sooner or later. So… no. If I drop at work I don’t want you to hide it.”

Kara smiled at her little’s bravery. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

They walked in to L Corp with little fanfare. A few people looked at Kara curiously and some others greeted Lena, but they were able to take the elevator up to Lena’s office without difficulty or delay.

“Good morning, Ms. Luthor. Here is your coffee,” Lena’s assistant handed her a coffee, “and your schedule is open on your computer. First meeting in 15 minutes.”

Lena took the coffee and walked into her inner office without a word. Her assistant was about to go back to her desk when Lena called out “Jessica, get in here.” Quickly scurrying in, Jessica stood just inside the door. 

Lena was leaning against the front of her desk and facing the door, and Kara was standing just a few feet away. “All the way in, and close the door.” 

Jessica did as instructed and stepped forward.

Sighing dramatically and looking at Kara, who just grinned right back, Lena decided to rip the band-aid off. “I have recently finalized my bond to Kara Danvers,” Lena gestured at Kara and Jessica’s eyes widened, “and apparently needed to make this introduction.” 

Kara rolled her eyes, and when Lena didn’t move to make any further explanation, stepped toward Jessica. “If anything happens to her I need to be your first call, understood?”

Jessica slowly nodded but asked “Like what, exactly?”

Scoffing, Lena answered “Like if I am in danger, or if I regress in the middle of a work day.”

Jessica’s eyes, if possible, widened even further. “Oh, you’re… you’re a little. Okay.” To her credit she recovered quickly and looked at Kara. “I can do that.” 

Smiling warmly, Kara stepped the rest of the way to Jessica and handed her a card. “Here’s my number. I’m trusting you with my baby, I hope you understand how important that is to me.”

Puffing out her chest, Jessica nodded seriously. “I won’t let you down Ms. Danvers.”

“For Christ’s sake, you two know I’m not _currently_ a toddler, right? I’m more than capable of speaking for myself.” Jessica looked mildly chastised, but Kara could hear the joking tone of Lena’s voice and she walked over to where Lena stood with her arms crossed.

Reaching up, Kara booped Lena’s nose and said “Of course you are.”

Lena merely gave her an exasperated smile and then hummed in appreciation when Kara kissed her forehead. “I’ll be back to pick you up at five. Behave yourself.”

Kara had started walking toward the exit already and Lena did her best angsty teenage girl impression as she said “Yes, mother.” Turning back to look at Lena with a smile, Kara gave her a wink and then exited. 

Lena stared after Kara with a loving expression for several long moments before shaking herself and looking at Jessica. “Well don’t just stand there, send in my first meeting.”

“Yes ma’am.” Jessica smiled to herself at having seen that side of Lena Luthor, and she hustled to do as she was told.

The first two meetings of Lena’s day were with two department heads at L Corp and went pretty well. One of them had just finished a three year research project and was briefing her on the results, and the other was requesting funding for her own research project. The research being proposed definitely excited Lena, but she needed more figures to ensure its feasibility before committing to allocating the funds. She told the department head as much and the woman promised to have her assistant Mark compile and bring her the required information by the end of the day.

After those first meetings, Lena took a tour of the lab spaces. She checked on the progress of a few ongoing projects, giving Jessica instructions and notes as she went, and used the opportunity to get some face time with employees.

All in all it was a good day. Until the board meeting at 11, that is.

The deal she was trying to get the board to approve wasn’t even _that_ big of a deal, but with how difficult they were being you would think that she was trying to sell the damn company. 

So she sat in the stuffy board room for the third time in two weeks and tried to negotiate with her board. Two weeks ago she had five opponents on the board, but through some reworking and renegotiating she had managed to appease three of those opponents. 

The issue with the remaining two, besides their being old white men who didn’t respect her as CEO, was that the alterations to the deal they were requesting were in direct opposition to each other. Honestly she wouldn’t be surprised if they had intentionally done so in order to make things more difficult for her. And she told them as much in the meeting.

“Well, I’m not surprised you think that.” Johnson replied to her in a patronizing tone. “I wouldn’t expect someone of your… history, to understand the nuances of a complicated business deal.”

Lena had been sitting in that room for an hour already and had barely been holding it together, but that comment sent her over the edge. “My history? By that do you mean my several degrees and proven business acumen? Maybe my entire wall full of awards and published research? Or perhaps you’re referring to my only being born in 1993? Or my being born a member of the female sex? Those are your most frequent complaints against me, are they not?”

Johnson leaned back in his chair looking satisfied with himself. “Lena, sweetheart,” Lena cringed when he said that word-- only Kara should be allowed to call her that, “if you can’t control these emotional outbursts then no one will be able to take you seriously. I know a lot of women have trouble with that, so I don’t necessarily _blame_ you, but still. It’s unbecoming.”

She had to restrain herself from jumping across the table and throttling him. As it was, she took a deep breath and plastered on her most congenial smile before addressing the table. “I don’t think we’re going to get anything more out of this meeting today. I’ll be in touch with each of you.”

Snorting and muttering to Smith, the other man who was blocking Lena’s deal, Johnson said “Kicking us out, must be that time of the month.”

Lena stayed perfectly motionless as they all filed out, holding a pencil in two hands. As soon as the door clicked shut behind the last board member, she snapped the pencil and threw it across the room. She screamed internally the entire way back to her office, storming inside without saying a word to Jessica when she got there.

Plopping down at her desk chair, she rested her head in her hands and took a few deep breaths. Once her heart rate had calmed down, she sat up straight with a new resolve. She was Lena Luthor, CEO of L Corp, and so help her she would find a way around Johnson and Smith. 

Her next scheduled event wasn’t for three hours, so Lena dove right into her problem. Only, despite her resolve, she was having a hard time concentrating.

The numbers and words on her screen kept running together and getting jumbled up in her mind, and the longer she looked at them the more frustrated she got. She tried to take notes but couldn’t get her fingers to work, which just made her even more frustrated. It wasn’t until she caught herself unintentionally chewing on her fingers that she realized what was going on. She was dropping, and she didn’t like it one bit.

“No, not now. I need to get this done,” Lena jerked her hand out of her mouth and murmured to herself. This deal had become about much more than just the deal-- it was about sticking it in Johnson and Smith’s stupid old man faces.

Just a few more pages and I’ll figure it out, Lena thought to herself. Just a few more pages and I can relax. Just a few more pages and Mommy and I can watch snow movie. “NO.” Lena caught herself sucking her thumb and jerked her hand back out.

She looked back up at her screen and did a double take when she saw the time. It was already one o’clock. “Jessica?” She called her assistant over the phone. 

“Yes Ms. Luthor?”

“Could you go pick up lunch?”

“What would you like today?”

Lena rubbed her temples-- she was tired of making decisions. “Surprise me, you know my order just about everywhere.”

“Alrighty then. I’m on it.”

“Thank you Jessica.”

Lena went back to looking at her screen but was having an even harder time concentrating. She stuck a pen in her mouth without realizing and was chewing and sucking on it while trying to decipher the big words on her screen. She just wanted her Mommy, why couldn’t she have her Mommy?

A tear leaked out and Lena was a few seconds from totally losing control when a knock sounded at her door. She cursed herself and hastily spit out the pen and wiped at her eyes. “Come in.”

Jessica came in with a plastic bag in hand and smiled at Lena. “I got you a number four from Chu’s, I hope that’s alright.”

“Yes, that’s fine, thank you. Just put it down here.” Lena gestured to an open spot on her desk and Jessica did as she was told before retreating from Lena’s office. 

Lena thought that maybe eating would help her stay alert enough to figure out this deal and avoid dropping, but as soon as she started she knew that she was dead wrong. Why had she told Jessica to surprise her? And _why_ did she always refuse to use anything but chopsticks when eating from Chu’s?

Chopsticks in hand, Lena struggled to bring the food to her mouth. But she was a big girl, so she kept trying. She barely managed one bite and was starting to cry again. Why did she have to be so useless? And where was Mommy? Mommy could help her with these slippery noodles.

Trying to bring another bite to her mouth, Lena’s hands fumbled on the chopsticks and she dropped them and the food in them onto her lap. 

Spilling on herself was the final straw and suddenly she flung her food container onto the floor and screamed-- full on screamed. Covering her face with her hands, she started to openly sob.

Jessica rushed into the office a second later and stopped immediately at what she saw. Her boss, Lena Luthor, had thrown her food across the room and was sobbing into her hands. “Ms. Luthor, are you alright?”

Lena just cried louder and whimpered out “I wan’ Mommy” before sliding to the floor and curling up into a ball. 

“Oh no, oh no.” Jessica was freaking out but then she remembered that she had Kara’s card on her desk. Running out to grab the card and her phone, Jessica was already dialing by the time she came back in the room. 

Kara answered on the first ring. “This is Kara.”

“Thank goodness! Ms. Danvers, this is Jessica, Ms. Luthor’s assistant.”

“Is something wrong?” Kara’s voice was immediately concerned.

“Um, yeah. Ms. Luthor is dropping and dropping quickly. She’s kind of in a ball on the floor crying and I really don’t know what to do. How soon can you get here?”

Kara cursed under her breath before replying. “I’ll be there in under five. Don’t leave her alone and try to move anything breakable away-- she likes to knock things over when she’s upset. Tell her I’m on my way.”

“Okay. See you soon.”

Kara hung up and Jessica moved slowly toward Lena. When she reached her desk she moved a few breakable things into a nearby chair away from Lena. “Um, Ms. Luthor?”

Lena showed no signs of having heard her and just kept crying loudly. “Kara is on her way, it’s going to be okay.”

“Don’ need Mommy” Lena got out between gasps, “I big girl.” 

Seeing Lena fighting her drop so hard broke Jessica’s heart, and she could only hope that Kara would be there soon.

-

“Well I sure hope that was an important call Keira, but I don’t know where you expect to be in five minutes if it’s not back in that chair.” Cat Grant pointed back at the chair Kara had shot up from when Jessica called, interrupting the meeting going on.

“Sorry Ms. Grant, but I have to go.” Kara leaned down to grab her jacket and bag, quickly throwing her notepad inside of it. 

“Where to exactly?” Normally Cat Grant staring at Kara with her hands on her hips would be intimidating, but right now all she could think about was the fact that Lena needed her. Nothing else mattered.

“My baby needs me.” 

Cat rose an eyebrow in surprise. “I was unaware you had a child.”

“I have a little.” Kara was already halfway across the room, stepping over and around shocked people as she went. 

“Since when?”

Kara sighed in exasperation. She didn’t have time for this. “This weekend. Now if you’ll excuse me,” she spoke to Cat but stepped harshly on the foot of a guy who didn’t move for her.

“Of course, your little should always come first. I expect you not to fall behind though.”

Kara shot Cat a grateful smile as she finally reached the door and walked around the corner. As soon as she was out of sight of the humans she sped up the stairs to the roof and launched into the air without hesitation. 

She flew to their apartment first and grabbed a diaper bag she had packed with some emergency supplies the night before, and then flew straight to the roof of L Corp. Landing and taking the stairs down to two floors below Lena’s office, she then hopped in an elevator to appear to make a normal entrance.

When the doors dinged open on Lena’s level she rushed out at human pace and walked straight into Lena’s inner office. Jessica was sitting next to Lena on the floor and trying to talk to her, but she was clearly in way over her head. When she saw Kara she sagged in visible relief and walked over to her. 

“She’s trying to fight it, keeps saying she’s a big girl. I think something happened at the board meeting to upset her.” 

Kara sighed deeply and said “Thanks Jessica, I’ve got it from here” before walking over to where Lena lay sobbing on the floor. She dropped the diaper bag a few feet away and knelt down by Lena’s head 

“Lena, baby, Mommy’s here. Can you tell me what’s wrong?”

Kara moved to sit on her butt and started carding her fingers through Lena’s hair. Lena sniffed and turned her head away from Kara. “Don’ need you! I big. I can do dis. Beat meanies.”

Kara just kept playing with Lena’s hair and spoke as lovingly and soothingly as she could. “I know you can beat the meanies, sweetheart, you’re the smartest girl in the world. But they’ll still be there later. You don’t have to be big right now. It’s okay to drop.” 

Lena had stopped shaking as violently so Kara pulled her head onto her lap, still running her hands soothingly through her hair. “Let me take care of you. Okay? Let Mommy take care of you.”

Gasps slowly turned to shuddering breaths, which turned to a hiccup here or there. After a few minutes Lena had allowed Kara to calm her down, and after that all it took was Kara to lean down and place a kiss to the side of her head for Lena to give in. 

“Mommy?” Lena looked up at Kara with innocent hope and Kara smiled warmly down at her. “There’s my sweet girl.”

Lena smiled back at her before putting her hand back in her mouth and chewing on her fingers. Kara tutted quietly and reached over to grab the diaper bag. Opening the side pocket, she fished out the Supergirl pacifier and replaced Lena’s fingers with it.

“Do you want to go home with Mommy?” 

Head filling with hazy images of watching the snow movie with Mommy, Lena happily nodded. 

“Okay then. Come on.” Kara shifted so she could get up and pull Lena to her feet, but as soon as Lena was standing she was falling over. Kara looked down and rolled her eyes when she saw the heels on Lena’s feet. 

Laughing a bit, she scooped Lena up and sat her on the edge of her desk. “Let’s get you out of these big girl shoes first, yeah?”

Lena kept happily sucking away on her pacifier as Kara took off her shoes, but when Kara turned to put her shoes in the bag she started trying to tug off her pants. Seeing Lena trying to take off her pants made Kara laugh again. 

“Baby girl we’ve been over this. You need pants.”

Ignoring her, Lena kept trying to squirm out of her pants. When she knocked a stapler off of her desk and started getting frustrated Kara stepped forward and grabbed her hands. “Look, sweetheart, you can’t just not wear pants.”

When Lena frowned at her she continued. “ _But_ we can make a deal. I brought some fun clothes with me in my bag. I’ll let you pick your clothes _and_ let you take your pants off as soon as we get home. But you do have to wear pants all the way until we get there, okay?”

Still frowning a bit, Lena at least stopped struggling against Kara and nodded her head in agreement. Kara grabbed the diaper bag and reflected internally that it really wasn’t any surprise that Lena became so successful a business woman if she had this penchant for deals even as a toddler.

Setting the bag in Lena’s chair and sliding it over, Kara opened it up and pulled out the clothing choices. Lena looked at them for a minute before picking jeans and a Rarity My Little Pony shirt. Kara smiled and put the other clothes away before pulling out a diaper and laying Lena back on her desk. 

Quickly taking off Lena’s adult clothes and diapering her, Kara then slid on her elastic waisted jeans and her Rarity shirt. “Better?”

Lena smiled around her pacifier and nodded excitedly. “You need shoes too, you’re going to have to walk a little bit.” Kara fished around and pulled out a pair of Converse that she easily slid on Lena’s feet. Helping her little stand up, Kara looked her up and down in satisfaction. “You look super duper cute right now.”

Lena launched herself into Kara’s arms and Kara spun her in a circle while laughing and pressed kisses all over her face. “You’re my special, beautiful, smart girl and I love you so much.”

They enjoyed the embrace for another minute before Kara sat Lena back on the edge of her desk. 

“Hey, Jessica?” She yelled toward the door.

Jessica poked her head into the office less than five seconds later. “Yes?”

“Have a car meet us out front, will you?”

“On it.” 

Jessica let the door fall shut behind her as she moved to go make the call for a car and Kara turned back to Lena. “You ready to go?” Lena nodded and allowed Kara to hold her hand and pull her out of the office.

Kara knew that Lena said just that morning that she didn’t want to hide their bond if she dropped at work, but it was still with a certain amount of trepidation that she led Lena out past all of her employees. Nodding to Jessica, who smiled at Lena and Kara and told them that a car would be out front by the time they got down, Kara squared her shoulders and walked into the hallway.

At first nobody noticed, but by the time they were halfway across the floor to the elevator several people were doing double takes and whispering. Lena must have felt Kara tense up, because she tugged on Kara’s hand and then spat out her pacifier to say “Wuv you” before popping the pacifier back in. 

“I love you too baby girl. Come on, let’s get in the elevator.”

While they were waiting for an elevator, a man exited the elevator behind them and called out in excitement. “Ms. Luthor! Before you go, I have those figures from--” Lena had turned to see who the loud man was, and he quickly took in her appearance from the pacifier to the My Little Pony shirt “Oh. _Oh_.”

“She’s not really in the advanced math frame of mind right now. I’m sure you understand?” Kara spoke for Lena, who had turned back to look at the blinking lights on the elevator control panel in interest. 

“Totally! I’ll just give them to Jessica. Ms. Luthor can look at them when she’s, well, Ms. Luthor again.” He noticed the door closing behind him and he jumped back to hold it open for them. 

“Thanks. Come on baby, this way.” Kara pulled Lena into the elevator and pointed at the lobby button. “You want to push it?”

Lena giggled and eagerly pushed the L button. “You’re such a good helper!”

Lena looked proud of herself and she leaned into Kara, tucking her face in her neck and smelling her hair. Kara rubbed her back up and down as they rode the elevator down to the lobby. They stopped a few times on the way to pick up and drop off people, and though a few people looked at them curiously, nobody interrupted their quiet bonding moment. 

Reaching the lobby and walking across it with her arm around Lena’s waist, Kara saw the car out front and thought that they were in the clear. But when they stepped outside and she caught the light of a camera flash from the corner of her eye she knew that she had called victory too early in the fight. 

Soon there were several other camera flashes and Lena was starting to look around in curiosity. When she saw the people with cameras coming toward them she jumped and started crying in fear. Kara glared at the photographers and pulled Lena tighter to her. “It’s okay Lena, it’s okay.”

Kara looked up and saw that the press was probably going to head them off, so she dropped the diaper bag and scooped Lena up into her arms, remembering to slouch a bit for effect. Walking at a fast human pace to the car, she loaded Lena into the back before closing the door and walking back to get her bag. 

The cameras followed her but she effortlessly pushed past them and retrieved the bag. They asked her questions but she ignored them all and was soon back in the car. “Take us home.”

“Yes ma’am.” 

\---

Headlines were rolling in just scant hours later. Kara read through some of them while Lena played in the living room. They ranged from long ones, like: 

_Unknown CatCo Employee Bonds With L Corp CEO Lena Luthor_ , and

_L Corp One of Three Fortune 500 Companies Led by a Little_

To simple ones like:

 _Lena Luthor a Little?_ , and

_Little Luthor_

Deciding that she would deal with it with adult Lena later, Kara put the tablet away and instead focused on enjoying her time with little Lena. Who was, of course, chewing on the head of a Fluttershy doll. 

Kara loved her. 

\---

Lena age back up a little before dinner. Kara was sitting on the couch reading a book when Lena padded over and sat down next to her, leaning into her side. 

“Thank you for today, Kara. I… I needed that.” 

Kara leaned her head on top of Lena’s and said “Whether you’re a badass millennial CEO or a one year old little girl who refuses to wear pants, I love you and will be there for whatever you need.” 

Lena opened her mouth to speak but was cut off by Kara’s phone ringing and Kara answering it.

“Alex, what’s up?”

Lena heard enough through the phone to catch the words “emergency,” “danger,” and “explosion.” Kara looked down at her uncertainly and Lena smiled and said “Go, I’ll be fine.” 

“On my way, Alex.”

“You sure?” Kara stood up and looked back at Lena, who just rolled her eyes in response.

“Yes, Supergirl, I’m sure. I think I’ll be an adult for a while longer. Go save the day.”

Kara kissed Lena’s head and then speed changed into her suit. Before she flew out of the door though she had a thought. “Hey, we’re going to need to need to set up some sort of drop protocol in the apartment. Something to beep me if you drop and I’m not here.”

“That’s not a bad idea.” Kara could see Lena’s brain working. “I’ll put something together. But for right now go save the world or whatever!”

Kara mock saluted her before zooming off to save the day. 

Lena settled into Kara’s spot on the couch and grabbed the tablet from the side table. She unlocked it and was surprised to see several tabs already open, but when she read what they were she understood. Sighing deeply, Lena glanced them over before closing the tabs. It’s not like it was the first time she had been the subject of news headlines, but it was the first time Kara had been. Sure, Supergirl was in headlines all the time, but Kara had worked hard to maintain anonymity and not draw attention to herself. Lena made a note to talk to Kara about how she was doing before pulling up her email.

Ignoring emails of no consequence, Lena saw one from her assistant Jessica. 

_Ms. Luthor,_

_Mark (Ms. Ramirez’s assistant) brought by the information you requested from Ms. Ramirez this morning. I scanned them and emailed them to you in case you’re feeling up to looking them over. Your appointments from this afternoon were all successfully rescheduled._

_-Jessica_

Reflecting on how much better Jessica was than her previous assistant, Lena shot off a brief reply-- _Thanks. I’ll look it over and send them back to Mark directly_ \-- and opened the attachment. Scrolling through the document, she easily fell into a groove. When she needed an additional screen she quickly grabbed her laptop from the kitchen counter and brought it into the living room.

She made notes and changes and wrote out a few clarifying questions she had, but all in all it looked like Ms. Ramirez’s research proposal was a solid one. Lena sent the altered documents and a list of questions and instructions back to Mark via email and then took a deep breath and pinched the bridge of her nose.

Now it was time to figure out how to beat Johnson and Smith. She turned on some music over the living room speakers, grabbed a glass of wine, and spread out an impressive array of screens and books around her.

She wasn’t the billionaire successful CEO of L Corp for nothing. Cracking her knuckles and rolling her shoulders, Lena got to work. 

\---

Kara came back home hours later dusty and tired but otherwise okay. She came in from the balcony, taking care to step around the boxes of her stuff that Lena had movers bring over, and smiled warmly at the sight awaiting her.

Lena was passed out on the couch amid a mountain of books and screens. Her hand was clutching a tablet and her head was lolled back against the back of the couch.

Silently stepping over some fallen books, Kara approached Lena. Effortlessly picking up her little, Kara carried her into her room and tucked her in. Lena wiggled around and let out a sigh of contentment once she was in a real bed, and she let out a sleepy “Mommy” when Kara gave her a kiss. 

Kara smiled and whispered “Get some sleep baby girl” before moving back out to the living room to clean up Lena’s work explosion. She punched save on the open documents before closing the tablet and laptop and moving them to the kitchen counter while she rinsed out Lena’s empty glass. Moving back into the living room, Kara realized that she had absolutely no idea what any of the books or papers were or whether they were open to important pages. Keeping that in mind, she took a quick picture of the spread before putting a bookmark in every open page and stacking them all neatly on the coffee table. 

Her clean up done, Kara walked back toward the bathroom, intending to shower and get ready for bed. On her way she heard Lena whimper so she detoured to stick her head in the little’s room. 

Lena’s brow was furrowed and she was biting chewing on the corner of her blanket. Not wanting to wake her little, who Kara was starting to think was one of the littles who typically regressed in their sleep, Kara retrieved a pacifier and slid it in her mouth. Lena immediately relaxed and returned to breathing deeply, but being perched on the edge of Lena’s bed made Kara realize another thing-- Lena had wet it.

Kara knew that she was going to have to talk to Lena about always sleeping in diapers, but for right now she would just do some clean up and make sure her baby didn’t wake up in the middle of the night wet and cold.

She slid Lena over to the dry half of the bed and gently removed her shorts. Luckily she had only peed, so Kara quickly cleaned and diapered her, holding her breath when Lena made a displeased noise at the cold wipe. Once Lena was taken care of, Kara realized that she had no idea where the extra sheets were, or even if Lena had extra sheets in the apartment.

Shrugging her shoulders, Kara scooped Lena up and walked her down the hall to her room. She set Lena down on her bed and tucked her in again, and then she returned to Lena’s room to strip the bed. Tossing everything in the washer, Kara then continued on to her original destination.

Standing under the shower spray, Kara reached out her hearing and listened to Lena’s deep breaths and steady heartbeat. Never in her life had she expected to feel this deeply connected to another person-- to feel this much love. 

Returning to her room and throwing on some new clothes, Kara climbed into bed next to Lena. As though sensing her Mommy’s presence, Lena sighed and smiled happily. Kara fell asleep with the knowledge that this was true happiness.

And then woke up several times to Lena’s hand in her face or foot digging into her ribs with the knowledge that sharing your bed with a one year old was a terrible idea.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A lot of people have been requesting little Alex, and I promise we will get to meet her soon. Right now I think chapter 6 is going to be almost entirely about Alex and Lena interacting-- and mostly as littles. I have a few more cameos in my head for little Alex as well, but remember that she doesn't drop anywhere near as frequently as Lena.


	5. The Board

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lena battles her board.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had to take a break for a while, sorry about that.

Kara woke up before Lena and used the time to get herself ready for the day and head into the kitchen to start on breakfast. She plated the toast and scrambled eggs she made and then stood looking at the cabinet with the cups while holding a carton of juice in hand. Unsure if she would be needing a sippy cup or an adult cup for Lena, Kara set the carton on the counter and decided to wait.

Just then Kara heard a change in Lena’s heartbeat and respirations indicating that she was waking up, and she quickly moved to the doorway of her room. Lena was stretching with her arms over her head and looking absolutely adorable and Kara grinned at the sight.

When she finished her stretch, Lena took in the room she was in and then spotted Kara in the doorway. Letting out a chuckle, Lena asked her “How the hell did you know I was awake?”

Adult Lena, then, Kara made a mental note before tapping her ear with one finger. “Super hearing, remember?”

“Oh, right. Supergirl.” Lena sighed over-dramatically, “I’m never going to get away with anything, am I?”

“Not a chance.” Kara retorted as she walked over to perch on the edge of her bed. Reaching out to brush a strand of hair from Lena’s face, Kara smiled down at her. “How are you feeling?”

“Better. I think I figured out how to appease my idiotic board members and get this deal through” Lena said with a sense of relief and satisfaction.

“That’s great news.” Kara beamed at her brilliant little. “Not that I ever had any doubts, of course.”

“Oh, of course.” Lena smirked at her and the two fell into a comfortable silence, to be broken after a minute by Kara.

“How are you feeling about the headlines?” 

Lena took a breath before responding. “I can’t say I’m happy about them, but it’s a price I’m willing to pay for not having to hide this” she gestured between the two of them. “I would face a million reporters if it meant I get to have my Mommy whenever I need her.” Warmth flooded Kara at Lena’s words and she leaned down to give her a lingering forehead kiss. 

“I should really be the one asking you about this though. How are you feeling about the headlines, Ms. Unknown CatCo Employee?”

Kara chuckled. “Ms. Grant is going to freak that I didn’t give her the headline first.”

Both of them laughed for a minute because of the accuracy and hilarity of the statement, but soon Lena sobered up and fixed Kara with a stare. “But seriously, you good?”

Recognizing the realness of Lena’s question, Kara schooled her features and tried to convey sincerity through her reply. “I have never, and I mean never, been better.”

Lena launched herself up and wrapped her arms around Kara, whispering “I’m glad” into her neck. Kara let Lena hang onto her for a few minutes before standing up with her and carrying her to her own room. 

“Oh yeah, how did I get in your bed?” Kara carrying her suddenly reminded Lena that she woke up in a different place than she went to sleep in. 

“Well,” Kara walked into Lena’s room and set her on the new changing table, “that was actually a multi-step process.” Kara started stripping Lena in preparation to take off her diaper and clean her up. 

“First I carried you from the couch to your bed. Then when I went back to check on you I saw that you had wet the bed,” at that Lena’s head whipped over to her bed which was stripped of all sheets and blankets, “so I put a diaper on you and moved you to my bed while I cleaned yours up.”

Looking a bit bothered and self conscious, Lena mumbled out a very small sounding “Sorry.”

Kara slipped a pair of adult underwear on her and pulled her into a sitting position. “There is absolutely nothing to be sorry about, Lena. You did what little girls do, and I did what Mommies do. Taking care of you is a pleasure, not a burden. Okay?”

Lena forced herself to take a deep breath and forced herself to meet Kara’s gaze. “Are you sure? You’re not lying to me?”

“Oh baby girl, of course I’m sure. And I would never lie to you. We should probably start putting you in diapers before bed though, just to be on the safe side.”

Lena nodded in agreement and gave Kara a small smile. “We can do that.”

\---

They ate breakfast and Kara helped Lena get dressed, taking a second to mentally note that they already seemed to be settling into a comfortable morning routine. Kara liked it.

“Let me go to work with you. I’ll walk you in.” Kara said to Lena as Lena was packing her work bag. 

“Won’t you be late?”

Kara smirked. “Super speed, remember?”

“Damn that’s going to take some getting used to.” Lena let out a loud laugh as she hoisted her bag over her shoulder. 

When they got to L Corp Kara took Lena’s hand as they walked in past a few reporters and into the elevator. Everyone on their way up was clearly trying to catch a glimpse of the mysterious Kara Danvers, assistant to Cat Grant that somehow bonded to Lena Luthor. Reaching Lena’s office was a relief for both women and Jessica’s smiling face quickly chased away the “on display” feelings they were battling.

“Morning Jessica!” Kara beamed right back at Lena’s assistant and Lena rolled her eyes in exasperation. 

“Ms. Danvers, good morning! Ms. Luthor, your coffee” she handed Lena a cup, “and your schedule is on her desk.”

“Excellent, Jessica. Thank you.”

Kara followed Lena into her office and made sure she was settled. “Can I pick you up for lunch?” Lena smiled at her and said “I’d like that.” 

Kissing Lena’s cheek and wishing her good luck with her board, Kara then headed up to the roof and flew off to work.

\---

“Kara!”

Kara winced at the tone of Cat’s voice. She had only made it five steps off the elevator before Cat pounced. 

“Yes, Ms. Grant?”

“Don’t ‘yes, Ms. Grant’ me! Why is it that I had to find out that my assistant, my own assistant, is bonded to the CEO of L Corp through the goddamn Times?”

“Um--” Kara couldn’t get a reply in as Cat kept talking.

“Not that I’m not happy for you, of course, but really. Next time you do something newsworthy I expect to be the first to know. Understood?”

Once again all Kara got out was “Um--”

“Good. Now what are you standing around for? Go get the morning report from the photo lab. They’re running behind, and I do _not_ appreciate being made to wait.”

Kara scurried off to the photo lab and just like that things were back to normal.

\---

 

“Hey Jessica, Lena in her office?”

“Yes, Ms. Danvers.”

“Dude, call me Kara.”

Jessica looked amused and Kara had a feeling she wasn’t going to heed that instruction, but she headed into Lena’s office anyway. They had a lunch date, and Kara Danvers did not mess around when it came to food.

“I don’t know about you, but I am beyond hungry right now.” Kara loudly called out as she walked into Lena’s office, only to whisper “Sorry!” when she saw that Lena was on the phone.

Lena gave her a small genuine smile before holding up a finger in the universal “wait/one minute gesture.” Kara made her way over to the couch and plopped down on it, trying to ignore her grumbling stomach. She wasn’t making much headway until she started listening to Lena’s conversation, which effectively wiped everything else from her mind.

“Ms. Luthor, your legal grounds are solid. The courtroom being as unpredictable as it is I can’t guarantee success, but I can come pretty damn close.”

“Thanks Mike, that’s a relief.”

“Did Mr. Smith indicate when he intended to take action?”

Lena snorted. “I imagine as soon as he gets to his attorney’s office. He didn’t give me an exact time but when security was escorting him from the building he made many angry and discriminatory remarks.”

“We’ll be ready when he files. I need to brief my team and then I’ll come back to you with specifics, but if you could send us any video footage of the incident in the boardroom or his removal from the building that will be helpful.”

“Jessica will have those to you by the end of the day.” Lena paused before tacking on, “You’re a godsend, Mike.”

Mike chuckled and replied “I’m glad you think so ma’am but I’m just doing my job.”

“Well you do it remarkably well and I don’t think I tell you that enough.”

“Thank you, ma’am.”

“Alright I’ll let you go get started and then I’ll have Jessica go down to security and compile those tapes.”

“Sounds good, Ms. Luthor. And I really am sorry you had to go through that today. He’s a right ass.”

“That he is, Mike. That he is.”

Lena hung up the phone and then walked over to Kara, positively dragging her feet. When she reached the couch she dramatically fell into Kara, who protectively wrapped her arms around her and started rubbing her back.

“How much of that did you hear?”

“All of it.” Kara saw no reason to lie. “I take it the board meeting didn’t go quite as planned?”

“Oh it went beautifully to start with. I figured out what I needed to last night and came at them hard. I made sure they couldn’t get around it this time.”

Lena trailed off and Kara hugged her a little tighter. “But what happened?”

“Smith happened. Well, Smith finding out about my being a little happened.”

Kara tensed up and managed to ask “What _exactly_ happened?” through gritted teeth.

“It started with a few not so subtle insinuations of my not being fit to run the company because of my status. You know, remarks like ‘Did someone have arts and crafts time?” when I pulled up a sketched projection I had done or ‘Will this meeting be over before nap time?’ when I yawned once.” Kara was trying very hard not to let her anger get the better of her. Logically she knew that Lena could take care of herself and had been doing this for a very long time, but the motherly instinct in her was screaming at her to go hunt down Smith and destroy him.

Lena kept telling the story though so Kara forced herself to focus on her words and let Lena’s voice wash over her. “It wasn’t until Johnson grudgingly admitted he was defeated and gave my deal his approval that Smith freaked out though.”

“I’ll let you watch the tape once Jessica gets a copy because honestly I’m too tired to go fully relive that again. Suffice it to say he said some disgustingly discriminatory things and threw a few office supplies. It wasn’t until he started insulting you that I lost my shit though.”

“Me?”

“Yeah. He said things about you that I really don’t want to repeat right now and that’s what made me finally rise to the provocation. Nobody gets to insult my Mommy and get away with it.” Lena sounded so fierce and protective, and Kara would have known just by that tone of voice that Smith hadn’t stood a chance.

“I laid into him, but unlike his insults, which were all based on me being a little and a woman and weak, mine were based in fact and regulations. When he wouldn’t stop I threatened him with a Section 17, which justifies firing of employees on the basis of discrimination or prejudice. He said some more angry things and I asked him if the only reason he wasn’t approving my deal was because I am a little. He said some more angry stuff without answering so I asked again. Finally he said yes, that littles weren’t fit to lead a company and that’s why he was still blocking my deal, except with some more colorful language. Him stating that put me clearly in Section 17 territory so I kindly asked him to leave the building and my employ.”

“Oh sweetheart I’m so sorry you had to go through that.” Kara rubbed soothing circles onto Lena’s back.

Lena gave a humorless laugh and said “Story isn’t over yet.”

“He refused to leave so I called security. When he saw security walking down the hall he got so angry he physically attacked me in addition to verbally attacking me.”

“He _what_?” If Kara had been angry before it was nothing compared to how she was feeling now, and Lena looked up in concern when Kara started physically vibrating from the force of trying to stay still when her instinct told her to go hunt Smith down right that second.

“Kara, please calm down. He barely landed a weak ass punch before I had him down with his arm behind his back like you showed me.”

Kara’s vibration didn’t stop and she moved her hands off of Lena because she was scared of hurting her by squeezing too hard. “I should’ve been there. He never should’ve gotten close enough to touch you. I’m supposed to protect you.”

Lena tried to pull Kara’s arms back around her but it was no use. When Kara didn’t want to be moved she wasn’t going to be. Settling for looking directly into Kara’s eyes, Lena spoke.

“There are some things I need to do on my own, Kara. I love you and I love being little with you more than anything. It makes me feel safe and loved and every other positive emotion you can think of,” she put her hand over Kara’s heart, “but there are times when I need to be an adult. I need to know that I’m strong and I have my own life and that our bond, as incredible and amazing as it is, doesn’t totally define me. Not only can I fight these battles on my own, I need to fight these battles on my own.”

“But then what am I supposed to do? I’m your Mommy, protecting you is the most important job I have. I want to always be there to protect you.”

“You may not have been in that room physically but you were still protecting me. You taught me the moves I used to defend myself, remember?” Lena tucked her head into the crook of Kara’s neck and breathed deeply. “You’re always telling me that I’m strong and capable. I’m just asking that you let me do things so I believe that too.”

Kara took a shuddering breath and nodded her head. “Okay.” She wrapped her arms around Lena again and stopped vibrating. “Okay, but if Smith ever tries to touch you again do I have your permission to destroy him?”

Lena sat up and gave Kara an amused look. “Not only do you have my permission, you have my encouragement.”

“Excellent.”

The two women sat cuddled on the couch for another few minutes before Kara’s stomach growled loudly, causing them both to laugh.

“Alright, come on. Time to get the super her food.” Lena pulled Kara to her feet and gestured to the door. After grabbing her purse she joined Kara by the door and they headed out for lunch.

Lena left instructions with Jessica for which footage to compile and to send it to Mike, her head of legal, and to herself. Jessica immediately trotted off down to Security to take care of that and Kara and Lena made their way out to lunch.

Blissfully, they didn’t run into a single member of the press.


	6. Play Date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Little Alex and little Lena have their first play date.

“Kara go get us more drinks!” Lena ordered.

“Yeah Kara!” Alex jumped in with an agreeing statement.

Kara just rolled her eyes and gestured for Maggie to go with her. It was one of Lena’s rare adult nights and they decided to go out drinking with Maggie and Alex in celebration of both Lena winning her case against Smith and getting her deal finalized.

While they waited for the bartender to make their drinks, Kara and Maggie leaned back against the bar and watched their girls interact. Lena had gotten a pen out and was drawing on a napkin and Alex was watching with rapt attention.

“Any idea what they’re doing?” Maggie asked and Kara focused on the napkin enough to pick up the details. Not that she understood any of them.

“It appears to be some sort of math.” Lena started drawing small circles with lines connecting them and Kara amended her statement. “Maybe science?”

Maggie snorted. “Glad I’m not the only one who has no idea what any of that stuff is.”

Alex grabbed the pen from Lena and started making her own notes on the napkin and Lena nodded along excitedly. “How the hell did we end up with those geniuses?”

Maggie shrugged. “Beats me.”

The bartender put the first of their drinks on the counter and busied himself with the next one. While watching Lena and Alex work so well together Kara had an idea. “They’re so cute together. Ooh, you know what we should do?”

“Hmm?”

“Play date!”

Whipping her head to look at Kara, Maggie nodded nearly as excitedly as Lena had been nodding at Alex’s smart person drawings. “Dude that would be awesome. How come we haven’t done that yet?”

“I have no idea. You think Alex can handle a toddler?”

Maggie snorted. “I think she’ll be beyond excited to have someone to show off to.”

The bartender put their next two drinks down on the counter. “Text me next time Alex is dropped and we can swing by, or you can come to us. Lena is dropped nearly all the time at home anyway.”

The bartender put down their last drink and they returned to their littles, who were now on their third napkin.

\---

_Maggie: Okay if we come over? I have a five year old who really wants to meet her little cousin._

_Kara: Sure! Lena is just playing with trucks, I’m sure she’d love the company._

About ten minutes later saw Maggie and Alex walking into Lena and Kara’s apartment. Alex was in a blue shirt with a microscope on the front, grey shorts, and checkered Vans. She was wearing the monogrammed backpack that Kara had gotten her for her birthday and was bouncing excitedly on the balls of her feet. Lena looked at her curiously before returning to her playing.

“Auntie Kara!”

“Hey Alex! I like your shirt, is it new?”

Alex nodded excitedly. “Yeah, Mama bought it for me at Target. It’s a microscope.” She was slow in her pronunciation of microscope but she got it right. The way she turned to look proudly at Maggie told Kara that she had been practicing the word.

“Well I think it’s fabulous. Your Mama has great taste.”

Alex beamed at her.

“Here baby, give me your bag. I’ll put it by the couch.” Maggie held out her hand and Alex shrugged out of her backpack and handed it to her. Her eyes followed Maggie over to the couch and took in Lena for the first time.

Lena was sitting in front of the couch in a onesie and a pacifier and had a mini-explosion of blocks and trucks on the floor around her. Looking up, Lena caught Alex watching her and then grabbed several blocks in her hands and hauled herself shakily to her feet. Running over to Alex, Lena handed her the blocks before toddling back over to her explosion to grab more, which she promptly delivered to Alex once more.

Alex took all of the blocks uncertainly and looked at Kara questioningly. Kara laughed. “I think she’s trying to give you presents. It means she likes you. Go say hi.”

Looking at Maggie, who nodded encouragingly, Alex headed over to where Lena was sitting. “Hi Lena, I’m Alex. Thanks for the blocks.”

Lena smiled around her pacifier and said what sounded like a mumbled “Pay?”

Alex just looked confused so Lena spat out her pacifier in frustration and pointed at a truck. “Awiss pway?”

“You want me to play?” Lena popped her pacifier back in and nodded enthusiastically, holding out a block.

“Okay, what are we building?” Alex’s tone was very businesslike and Maggie rolled her eyes. Even playing with blocks Alex could manage to turn into a mission. “You know what, let’s build a ramp for the truck.”

Alex started directing Lena to bring her blocks of different sizes and colors and Lena happily toddled around getting what Alex asked for.

Maggie and Kara had migrated to the kitchen, where they could see their littles but talk without interrupting them. Kara looked at Maggie, who was watching Alex with some amusement and no small bit of love. “You were right, I think this was a good idea.”

\---

A while later Alex called out that the ramp was done. “Mama, Auntie Kara! Come look at what me and Lena made!”

The Bigs slowly made their way out of the kitchen and toward their littles, which was clearly annoying Alex who was standing with her hands on her hips glaring at them. “Hurry up!”

Kara looked at Maggie in amusement. “I don’t know how you deal with this.” Maggie just laughed and said “She’s a precocious little brat, but she’s worth it” before running the rest of the way and swooping Alex up into her arms, making sure to kiss every inch of her face.

Once Alex was no longer pouting and was instead laughing and trying to squirm away from her Mama, Maggie finally put her down. “Alright silly butt, show me what you built.”

Lena pouted and tugged on Maggie’s pant leg. “I hep.”

Kara had made it into the living room by this point and smiled at Lena. Alex chimed in “Lena helped too! We both made it.”

“My apologies, Lena. Show me what _both of you_ made.” Lena appeared satisfied with Maggie’s correction and crawled over next to the ramp.

The ramp was maybe about 12 inches tall and it was extremely sturdy looking. Maggie and Kara were both impressed and told their girls as much.

“Lena, do you want to try it out?” Alex sat down next to Lena and handed her a truck. Lena picked it up and looked at Alex as though awaiting instructions. “Push it off the ramp!”

Lena looked a little confused so Alex guided her hand with the truck up the ramp and off the edge. When the truck hit the ground Lena giggled and looked at Kara, pointing to the truck. “Mommy!”

“I see baby, very good. Did Alex help you push off the truck?”

But Lena was no longer listening and instead was busying herself pushing all of her trucks off the ramp in quick succession, laughing loudly as they hit the floor. Alex started squirming and looking upset, so Kara nudged Maggie and pointed her in that direction. 

“Little one, I’m sure if you ask her Lena will let you play too.” Maggie leaned down and told Alex, rubbing her back for a few seconds. 

Alex watched Lena and seemed to be debating with herself while Maggie returned to her spot next to Kara to watch. “For all of her bossing around she really is a very selfless little. Far too concerned with other people’s emotions sometimes.” 

“Do you want me to tell Lena to share?”

“No, let Alex work it out. She can do it.”

And, of course, Maggie was right. Not five seconds later Alex tapped Lena on the shoulder and said “Um, Lena? Can I play too?”

Kara wasn’t sure if Lena understood everything but she definitely heard “play” because she clapped excitedly and shoved a truck into Alex’s hands. “Pay! Awiss pway!”

Maggie and Kara stayed in the living room watching their girls play for at least 20 minutes, taking some discreet pictures as they did so, because come on how could you not? After a while Kara noticed that Lena was staring at Alex with an adorable look of concentration.

“Is she pooping or thinking?” Maggie said quietly to Kara, having noticed the same thing, and Kara laughed. 

“Honestly it could go either way, but I’m going to place my bet on thinking. She does a lot of that. I find it _quite_ cute.” 

They didn’t have to wait long for an answer though because suddenly Lena got a look of realization and she pointed excitedly at Alex’s shirt. 

“It’s a microscope!” Alex said proudly, as Lena climbed to her feet and grabbed Alex’s hand, trying to drag her toward the hallway.

“Oh, okay, sure. Where are we going?” Alex allowed herself to be pulled to her feet and followed Lena down the hall. Maggie and Kara followed at a comfortable distance. 

When they got closer to Lena’s home lab Kara realized what was going on. “ _Oh._ Lena’s showing Alex her microscope.” 

“You got Lena a microscope?” Maggie looked at her incredulously.

Kara snorted. “It’s adult Lena’s microscope, and I assure you her salary paid for it, not mine.”

Lena pulled Alex through the door to her lab and walked over to the microscope, which was on a table in the middle of the room. “Scop! Scop!”

“Woah! Mama look it’s a real microscope!” Alex looked between the microscope and Maggie excitedly before deciding to leave her attention on the microscope.

Lena was bouncing and saying “Scop!” still. “That’s right baby girl. That’s a microscope, just like Alex’s shirt. Good job!” Lena beamed at Kara and held up her arms, wanting to be picked up. Kara obliged while Alex tentatively and reverently touched the microscope.

“Auntie Kara, are you a scientist?” Alex looked at Kara with a mixture of confusion and hope, and Kara couldn’t help but to smile at her. 

“No, but Lena is.” Alex’s confusion grew so Kara amended., “Well, Lena is when she’s a big girl. She has an important job but she still likes to do science stuff.”

“That is _so_ cool.” 

Alex looked through the lens and gasped because there was a slide already in place. She looked for a minute before turning to Maggie. “Mama?”

“Yes dear?”

“Can I play with big Lena too sometime? She’s a scientist!”

“I’m sure she would love that.”

“Cool!” 

Just then Lena decided she was bored and wiggled out of Kara’s arms back to the floor. “Awiss pway!” Grabbing Alex’s hand, Lena started pulling her back toward the living room.

Alex cast one last longing look at the microscope but allowed herself to be pulled by Lena, content with the knowledge that she would get to play science with big Lena one day. When they reached the living room Lena walked over to her toy chest, opened it, and started handing Alex things from inside.

Maggie and Kara sat on the couch and watched their littles interact. 

“Aren’t they absolutely adorable?” Maggie pulled out her phone to take a few more pictures and Kara nodded in agreement.

“Lena loves her, she’s giving her her favorite toys.”

“We did good.”

“Yeah, I think we did.”

\---

When it got dark outside Lena started yawning and rubbing her eyes. 

“Aw, I think someone is getting a little sleepy.” Kara said aside to Maggie. “Lena, baby, are you ready for beddie bye?”

Lena’s attempt to pout and say no was somewhat waylaid by her big yawn that caused her pacifier to dangle from it’s string. Once she was done yawning she stubbornly shook her head.

“Are you sure? You look pretty tired to me.”

Once again Lena shook her head.

“Well how about this? If you let me brush your teeth and help you into your jammies you can watch Frozen instead of going to bed.” Lena looked like she was considering. “Teeth, jammies, then Frozen. Okay?” Lena nodded and held her arms up, wanting to be carried. Kara swooped her up and patted her butt. “Teeth, diaper, jammies, and Frozen it would appear.”

While Kara was off with Lena down the hall Maggie opened her arms for Alex to jump into. “You should probably brush your teeth too, princess. That is, if you want to stay for a movie?”

Alex nodded her head. “I do, but can we watch Mulan instead?”

Maggie hummed. “That’s not up to me. Kara told Lena she could watch Frozen so you have to ask Lena if Mulan is okay.”

“Frozen is fine” Alex mumbled. 

“Sweetheart, just ask her. If she says no then you can watch Frozen, if she says yes then you can watch Mulan. There’s no harm in asking. And no,” Maggie saw Alex’s mouth opening, “I am not going to ask for you.”

Alex pouted but said “Okay.” 

“Here,” Maggie handed her her toiletries bag from her backpack, “go back there and brush your teeth. If you run into Kara and Lena I want you to ask if Lena is okay with watching Mulan. Okay?”

“Okay.” Alex nodded and took her bag down the hall toward the bathroom. 

Maggie turned on the tv and started picking up toys while Kara and the girls were in the back, and about five minutes later they all came back into the living room. Kara came in first and then Alex and Lena came in holding hands. Maggie’s heart grew to double its size at the sight.

“Maggie, go ahead and queu up Mulan, will you?” 

Maggie was proud of her little and she gave her a quick thumbs up as she navigated to Mulan on the smart tv. 

“I want to sit with Lena!” Alex suddenly and decisively declared. 

Kara laughed. “That’s fine with me. Lena?” Lena looked up at Kara. “Do you want to sit with Alex?”

Lena’s clambering up onto the couch and pointing at the spot next to her then at Alex was enough. Alex ran over and plopped down next to Lena, the younger girl immediately curling up on her lap. 

Maggie started Mulan and the littles watched with rapt attention. Lena made it only 15 minutes before she fell asleep, but Alex made it nearly an hour before losing the battle with her heavy eyelids. 

Kara and Maggie, of course, took a million pictures.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm probably not going to stretch this story on for too much longer. I have a couple of more chapter ideas that I will write soon, but I just don't have the time to devote to a fully involved story arc right now (for a variety of reasons). I'll let you know when the last chapter of mine is, but if any of you talented writer people want to take over the characters and the thread of the story and do a Cadmus angle or anything like that I would be okay with that. So long as you link to this story/give me a shout-out.


	7. Separation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Alex and Kara go off to another Earth, Maggie is left to care for Lena-- who is adamantly refusing to willingly drop.

“Go ahead, I need to talk to Maggie real quick."

Lena nodded and walked ahead with Alex while Kara hung back with Maggie. Kara and Alex had just finished telling Lena and Maggie the difficult news-- their friends on another Earth needed them, and they had to leave and go help them out. They didn’t know when they were going to be back.

Once Kara and Maggie were alone, Kara turned to the other Big with a serious expression. Before she could talk, though, Maggie opened her mouth.

“I know Alex is insanely capable and great at her job, but she’s still my girl. You’ll look out for her?”

Kara’s expression softened and she nodded in understanding and affirmation. “I’ve been with Alex most of my life, and I would defend her to my dying breath. She’s my sister. I’ll bring her back to you.”

Maggie nodded. “I believe you.”

“While we’re on this topic, I need you to look after Lena. There’s a drop protocol set up in our apartment that recognizes when she drops when she’s alone and notifies me immediately. It also does a few precautionary measures until someone gets there-- like locking doors and baby-proofing a few things. I’ll set up your phone to get those alerts.” 

Maggie nodded along in understanding as Kara rambled on. It sounded like she had rehearsed this speech. “If she drops, she can’t be alone, whether at home or at work. Her assistant’s name is Jessica and you should introduce yourself to her. Our friends are in a bit of a rush and need us right away or else I would talk to her on Monday myself.”

Maggie opened her mouth to respond but Kara kept rolling.

“I need you to promise me that if she drops, no matter where she is, you’ll leave whatever you’re doing and go take care of her. We’ll be out of range and I won’t be able to make it to her.”

Finally Kara paused for air and Maggie was able to get a few words in. “I’m not used to taking care of babies, but--”

“Please, Maggie.” Kara interrupted her and her voice was urgent and serious. “You have to promise me.”

If Maggie didn’t know exactly what Kara was feeling she might’ve taken offense to the interruption. As it was she smiled at her reassuringly and patted her arm. “You didn’t let me finish, Kara. I’m not used to taking care of babies, but I would sooner die than leave one alone or uncared for. Especially family.”

“So, yes, I promise you that I’ll take care of Lena and that she’ll be in one piece when you get back.”

Kara let out a relieved sigh and pulled Maggie into a hug. “Thank you. She’s strong, but she’s going to need you.”

\---

Kara and Alex left on Sunday. By Wednesday Lena still hadn’t dropped. 

Maggie tried her best to make her feel safe. She brought her story books and Disney DVDs, texted her to check in, and just all around tried to make sure Lena knew that she was there and that she didn’t have to go through this alone. Lena rebuffed every effort.

Lena was getting more short-tempered and frazzled as the days went by, and everyone around her noticed. 

After a couple of days Maggie resigned herself for the inevitable. If Lena was this hell-bent on denying her nature than there was only one thing left for Maggie to do-- absolutely nothing. She just had to wait for Lena to crash and be there to help pick up the pieces when she did. 

On Wednesday afternoon Maggie took a trip to Lena’s office and had a conversation with Jessica while Lena was out to lunch. 

“Hi, Jessica?”

“Yes. Are you here to see Ms. Luthor?”

“I’m here to see you, actually.”

“Oh? I don’t believe we’ve met.” Jessica was understandably surprised.

“We haven’t, actually, but I’ve been meaning to come up and talk to you.” Maggie perched on the edge of Jessica’s desk and looked down at her. “Kara’s sister, Alex, is my little. I’m Maggie.”

“Oh! Always nice to meet more of Ms. Luthor’s family.” Jessica stuck out a hand, which Maggie shook. “Why did you want to talk to me though? Lena is out at lunch.”

“That’s actually why I chose this time. Kara and Alex are out of town for a family emergency, it was all very last minute and they’re not sure how long they’re going to be gone, so Kara asked me to look after Lena.” Maggie sighed deeply. “But, as you may have picked up on, Lena is trying her hardest to be an adult right now. It’s not healthy.”

Sudden realization flared in Jessica’s eyes as she put together Lena’s behaviour with what Maggie was saying.

“I’ve seen it before. My own little used to have a tendency to suppress drops early on in our bond. She thought of dropping as losing control and being weak. I don’t know what Lena’s reasons are, whether she thinks she’s being strong by not dropping or if she’s scared to drop without Kara to care for her or what, but whatever it is she’s not going to last much longer.”

Jessica was nodding along. 

“There’s only one outcome for these types of situations. Lena is going to drop and she’s going to drop hard. It won’t be pretty, and she’s going to need help and support when it happens.”

“Okay. What can I do?”

“If you start to see the signs you should try to get her somewhere private. I’m sure she’ll appreciate her employees not seeing her crash. If you can’t convince her to move or if she’s dropping too quickly then at least clear out the area.”

“I can do that.”

“Okay.” Maggie fished out her wallet and pulled out a card before handing it to Jessica. “The only other thing you need to do is call me. I’ve been witness to a few of her tantrums, and Kara charged me with her care. No matter what I’m doing I’ll leave and come here immediately if you call me.”

Jessica took her card and put it next to her monitor before starting at the time. “She’ll be getting back from lunch any minute so you might want to head out, but thank you. I’ll definitely call you if she crashes at work.”

“Thanks Jessica. Lena’s lucky to have you as an assistant.”

Maggie headed back to work and waited for the inevitable.

\---

Lena made it through the rest of Wednesday without dropping, and it wasn’t until her meeting just after lunch on Thursday that she started to unravel.

The first thing that tipped Jessica off was Lena’s difficulty in navigating her heels on the way to the meeting. Heels Jessica had seen her effortlessly run in on more than one occasion. 

The next thing was Lena’s confusion about graphs and charts she had made herself. She blinked hard and shook herself with every new slide that came up and had to stare at it for several long moments before being able to say anything about it. Something that seemed to make her grow even more frustrated and angry. 

Which led to the third major thing that firmly tipped her over the edge. Lena knocked over her nearly finished bottle of water, spilling only a small amount of water but snapping something inside of her.

You see, Lena had been refusing to drop for reasons even she didn’t fully understand. All she knew was that the thought of dropping without the knowledge that Kara would come swooping in was terrifying in a bone deep, gut wrenching, sheer panic kind of way. So she fought harder than she had ever fought and managed to stay in her adult headspace. She was tired, and miserable, and barely managing to hold on, but she was absolutely and utterly terrified. 

She wasn’t an idiot. She knew it wasn’t healthy, what she was doing, but she was just trying to hold out hope that she could make it until Kara got home. Then she could stop being so scared and let herself be a little girl with her Mommy.

So when she struggled to walk in her heels, and understand the slides ( _her own slides_ ), she was gripped by panic and fear. All it took after that for the emotions to reach a fever pitch she could no longer handle as an adult was her spilling her water. 

Lena sat and looked at her water bottle for a few beats and Jessica rose to her feet in apprehension, hoping that what she thought was about to happen wasn’t actually about to happen. “Ms. Luthor, I can get that cleaned up for you. Why don’t we head back to your office for now?”

“Ms. Luthor?” 

Lena was breathing quickly and acted like she hadn’t even heard Jessica. Then, all at once, she grabbed her water bottle, threw it across the room, and screamed. 

Everyone in the room jumped and looked between Jessica and Lena. Jessica, remembering Maggie’s words, leapt to action. “All of you out.” Nobody moved. “I said out. Now!”

They scurried out of the door and Jessica started closing the blinds when she heard a crash and whipped around. Lena was on the floor and had kicked her rolling chair into a side table, knocking off the conference phone and someone’s laptop. As Jessica watched, Lena’s cries and screams rose in volume and she kicked several more chairs out of the way. Fishing out her phone, Jessica did the only thing she knew to do. Call for help.

She was halfway through dialing Kara’s number by instinct when she remembered to call Maggie instead and switched numbers. It was answered on the third ring. 

“Detective Sawyer.”

“Hi, is this Maggie?”

“Yes. Who am I speaking to?”

“It’s Jessica, Ms. Luthor’s assistant.” Jessica covered the mouthpiece and held the phone tight to her ear, trying to shield from Lena’s screams. Of course Maggie could still hear Lena loud and clear. 

“She crashed?”

“Yes, and hard.”

“Alright I’m on my way.”

“We’re in the 10th floor conference room. I’ll alert security and someone will escort you up here.”

“Got it.” Maggie hung up and turned around to walk back to her car.

“Uh, Sawyer?” A junior detective called after her. She had just gotten to a crime scene she was supposed to take lead on. She had taken the call when she was only five feet from the door and was now turning around without ever going inside. 

“Younger!” Maggie called over her shoulder at the junior detective. “Family emergency came up. You take lead on this one.” She never broke her stride.

“Thank you!” It was his first case as lead. “I thought Alex was out of town though?”

Maggie started climbing into her car. “She is, but she isn’t the only member of my family. Don’t fuck up this case.”

“Don’t worry boss man, I got it covered here.” 

She just rolled her eyes and drove away, thinking over everything she needed for taking care of Lena. Luckily she had Lena’s diaper bag in the trunk since the day Kara left, so that was at least a start.

\---

Maggie pulled up to the front of the building and hopped out, not caring that it was a no-park zone. She rushed in and headed straight to security. “Ms. Luthor’s assistant Jessica called me here.”

“Maggie Sawyer?”

She nodded. “Right this way, ma’am.” The man started leading her toward the elevator at a brisk pace, and Maggie turned to address another officer at the desk before she got too far away. 

“Make sure I don’t get towed!”

\---

“Lena, sweetie, please stop.” 

Jessica’s tone had gone from strict and demanding to soothing and entreating and had hit everything in between, but still nothing worked to calm the raging little. Lena now looked like every movie tantrum scene ever-- face down, feet and hands kicking the floor and anything in reach, and wailing at the top of her lungs. Nothing Jessica did was helping and she was two seconds away from a tantrum herself when Maggie walked in. 

“Thank God!” Jessica’s relief was palpable, which Maggie would’ve found more amusing if her heart weren’t ripping in two at the sight of Lena. At least Alex could say words and express herself, albeit it usually took a bit of goading, but they got there eventually. Lena wasn’t able to speak well in a language anybody could understand, which had to be beyond frustrating for the little girl, and Maggie heard her pain and fear loud and clear in her crying. Maggie had a passing thought that maybe teaching Lena some basic ASL would be good for her moving forward.

“How long ago did she crash?” 

“Um” Jessica glanced at her watch “whenever I called you. 15 minutes maybe?”

Maggie nodded in a business-like way and walked over to the table. She pulled out a chair and calmly sat in it, making no moves to go to Lena or anything. 

“You’re not going to tell her to stop?” Jessica seemed confused. 

“Nah. When she stops screaming I’ll go over and talk to her, but until then there’s not much I can do to make her listen.” Maggie spoke in a calm and confident manner, so Jessica decided to take her word for it and took the seat across from her. Of course internally Maggie was freaking out and second guessing everything she had ever read or seen about caring for babies and toddlers, and Lena’s cries were like individual ice picks to her heart, but outwardly she was staying strong. One of her greatest mottos was "fake it ‘til you make it," and she was determined to do exactly that until Kara got home.

Looking around the room, Maggie noticed that one set of blinds was still over halfway open and that employees were not so subtly trying to sneak a peek at their CEO mid-tantrum from down the hall. “Jessica, could you go close those blinds all the way?”

Jessica looked where Maggie was pointing and jumped up hurriedly to go close them. “Sorry, I got interrupted mid-closing.”

“And dim the lights to about 60 or 70 percent while you’re up.”

Jessica did both of those things before joining Maggie back at the table. 

Lena’s cries had begun to subside and she stopped kicking, but Maggie decided to give her a couple more minutes to cool off. After the time had passed, Maggie got up and sat down next to Lena’s head.

“Lena, baby?” 

Lena mumbled something Maggie couldn’t make out. 

“It’s okay Lena, you’re safe here. It’s just Aunt Maggie and Jessica. You know Jessica, right?”

Lena turned her head just slightly and Maggie could now make out what she was saying. “Wan’ Mommy.” She was no longer wailing, but she was still sniffling.

“Oh baby, I know, I know. Mommy is off helping a lot of people right now with Aunt Alex, but she’ll be back as soon as she can.”

“Mommy.” Lena hiccuped and sniffed and Maggie’s already broken heart crumbled just a bit more. Maggie put her hand on Lena’s back to rub in what she hoped was a soothing manner, and Lena turned her face so it was wedged in between Maggie’s leg and the floor. Taking it as a good sign, Maggie kept rubbing and started murmuring soothing noises and words.

“Your Mommy loves you, but people need her help right now, okay? It’s just going to be me and you for a while, but I promise you’re safe. Mommy and Alex will be back as soon as they can.”

Lena mumbled something that sounded like “Miss Mommy.” 

“I know, baby, I know. I miss your Mommy and Aunt Alex too. I miss them very much, but we’ll be okay. You and me are a team right now, okay?”

Lena finally turned her face to look at Maggie, who smiled down at her as encouragingly as she could. Lena’s face was covered with tears and snot though, so Maggie tutted and grabbed a baby wipe from Lena’s diaper bag. After she wiped off Lena’s face as best she could, she gave Lena’s nose a kiss and said “We’re a team, okay baby girl?”

Lena furrowed her brows in slight confusion and said “Tee?”

“Yes, team. You and me are a team.”

Lena nodded and then yawned widely, clearly exhausted from her crash. 

“Now let’s get you home and take a nap. How’s that sound?”

Showing just how tired she was, Lena didn’t even protest the suggestion of a nap.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will be their reunion-- Lena/Kara and Alex/Maggie. I was planning on making it all one chapter initially but it got away from me and I decided that the reunions deserved their own chapter. 
> 
> I'll probably try to round out this fic to an even ten chapters. It might be a week or two before the next chapter though. I'm getting surgery tomorrow and I'm going to be laid up and potentially loopy on pain meds for a while. Not sure how great of a writing frame of mind that will put me in, but maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised. We'll see. 
> 
> I promise this fic will get done though.


	8. Reunited

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reunions for both Maggie/Alex and Lena/Kara.

Lena crashed on Thursday. She stayed dropped on Friday, which didn’t surprise Maggie, but when Saturday came and went without any inkling of aging back up she started to get worried.

When a little stayed dropped for longer than 48 hours it was never for a positive reason, though first drops were sometimes an exception to that. Experts speculated on the exact reasoning, and there were several leading theories, including not being able to handle intense adult emotions, but the one thing everyone agreed on was that it wasn’t good. Coming out of a prolonged drop was sometimes more painful than going into one, and it sometimes took days or even weeks for the little to regain emotional stability and reestablish a normal rhythm. Of course every little was different and some naturally spent the majority of the time in their dropped state, but never without regular interludes into their adult headspace.

Alex had only fallen into a prolonged drop once, and it had worried Maggie sick. Alex was caught in a mission gone sideways and lost a few of the people under her command unexpectedly, and almost as soon as she got back she crashed and Maggie was left to pick up the pieces. She stayed dropped for almost five full days before she finally aged back up, and when she did it was to tears and the very adult pain of losing her people. The next four or five days saw Alex in a lot of weird mental states, and sometimes Maggie wasn’t sure if she was an adult or a little. Sometimes she thought maybe Alex didn’t even know herself. 

Her adult to little rhythm evened back out before the week was out, she went to DEO mandated therapy for months, and eventually she got back to a healthy place. But Maggie will never forget the pain and helplessness she felt when Alex was passing 24, 48, 72 hours with no signs of aging back up. It’s something every Big hopes they never have to experience, because it’s knowing your little is in pain and not being able to help them. They would age up when they were ready and not a second before.

So on Sunday morning when Lena passed 72 hours of being dropped, Maggie started to panic. She had covered her bases at work and was staying in Lena and Kara’s apartment, and Lena was physically taken care of-- food, clothing, baths, etc.-- but she knew Lena had to be in pain. 

Lena had shed a few more tears over the weekend but she hadn’t broken down again. She was much more quiet and reserved though, saying maybe three words the entire time since being home. Maggie could tell she was getting frustrated at not being able to speak, so she decided to try to teach her a few signs. Lena was wicked smart even as a toddler so she picked up on some of them quickly and by Sunday could sign hungry, thirsty, tired, a few food and drink signs, and a couple of other signs with differing levels of success. They weren’t all perfect, of course, but Maggie could tell what she was trying to say. Maggie wasn’t fluent in ASL but she had decided to learn what she could for her job, and it had come in handy on more than one occasion. Including, it seemed, babysitting. 

But even with the help communicating, Lena was stubbornly staying dropped. So Maggie changed diapers, sang songs, watched cartoons, and did anything and everything she could to make her as comfortable as possible. Including hoping beyond hope that Kara and Alex would get home soon.

Just after lunch on Sunday Lena looked at Maggie and put her thumb to her chin with her fingers pointing up. When Lena repeated it a few times and her lip started trembling Maggie realized what she was trying to get at. She wanted to know where her mommy was. 

“Oh, bug, Mommy is away with Aunt Alex, remember? They’re helping a lot of people right now.”

Lena just looked down sadly and a few tears leaked from her eyes. Maggie moved to pull her into a hug and rock her back and forth slightly. “They’ll be home as soon as they can sweetie. Mommy loves you very much.”

She kept consoling Lena and then she had an idea. “How about this, how about we make them welcome home cards? Do you think that would be nice? Make cards for Mommy and Aunt Alex for when they get home?”

Lena seemed potentially interested so Maggie got her to sit at the coffee table and ran to grab some paper and colored pencils When she got back they set to work. 

Maggie wrote “Welcome Home, Mommy” and “Welcome Home, Aunt Alex” on the front of each card in black marker and then opened the colored pencil spacemaker. 

“How about orange?” She grabbed orange, doing the sign as well even though Lena didn’t look particularly interested at the moment, and moved to color on the corner of Kara’s card. Before her pencil made contact with the paper though Lena pushed it away and shook her head angrily. 

“Not orange? Or do you want to color it?” 

Lena didn’t offer anything in the way of response and instead started rummaging through the spacemaker as though searching for something. She set her pacifier on the table next to the box, which Maggie found odd, and glanced at it a few times. When she pulled her hand out of the box there were three colors clutched in it and she popped her pacifier back in her mouth. Lena brandished the colors at Maggie and looked proud, and Maggie smiled when she saw what they were.

Red, blue, and gold. Supergirl’s colors. Mommy’s colors. 

They spent a solid while coloring. Lena colored Kara’s card a big scribble of Supergirl’s colors, and then she decided that Aunt Alex’s card should have every single other color in the box. Maggie was allowed to help with Alex’s card, though it took some convincing, much to Maggie’s amusement. 

After the cards were done Maggie had Lena give them each a kiss “for love” and then left them on the table before cleaning up the supplies. “Alright little one, what do you want to do?”

Lena yawned before she could respond and Maggie laughed lightly. “Nap? That sounds like a great idea.”

Lena shook her head no and crossed her arms in defiance, and Maggie put on a fake sad face and pouted at her. “No nap? But I’m tired!”

Confused, Lena uncrossed her arms, pointed at Maggie, and then did what was close enough to the sign for “tired” for Maggie to catch her drift. 

“Yeah, I’m tired. Can I take a nap pretty please?”

Still confused, Lena nodded her head and pointed toward the bedroom. 

“But I might get scared. Can you stay with me? You don’t have to nap but can you stay in bed with me?”

Lena stood up and grabbed Maggie’s hand, tugging her toward the hallway. She led her to Kara’s room but hesitated before stepping inside, and then turned back and went into her own room. Maggie looked around and saw that the bed was definitely large enough for two people. 

“Can I nap in here?” Maggie asked before putting on a dramatic yawn, amused when Lena followed suit. Lena nodded so Maggie climbed into bed and then patted the spot next to her on the bed. “You stay?”

Lena looked around like she was considering, but after less than five seconds she climbed into bed next to Maggie. Lena pulled back the covers and motioned for Maggie to get under before tucking the blanket in around her. Once Maggie was all settled, Lena got under the covers herself and burrowed into the pillows. Maggie pretended to be asleep for not even four minutes and when she opened her eyes to peek at Lena the little was fast asleep. 

Maggie did end up falling asleep, but luckily she woke up before the toddler. She went out to the living room and Lena joined her shortly after. Maggie quickly changed her diaper, wishing she had super strength and speed while she did it, and then they cuddled together on the couch and watched Frozen. 

At around 5 in the evening Maggie’s phone started ringing from its spot in the kitchen and she disentangled herself from Lena to go answer it. When she saw Alex’s number on the caller ID her heart beat faster in excitement and she quickly swiped to answer.

“Alex?”

“Hi.” Alex’s voice was breathless and smiling and it filled Maggie’s heart with indescribable joy. 

“You’re back?”

“Officially back to this Earth, yeah. As of, like, three minutes ago.”

“I’m so glad. You’ll have to tell me everything when I see you.”

Alex’s voice turned hesitant and she quietly said “Maybe tomorrow. I-- I dropped once with Kara but it isn’t the same. I need--” she took a deep breath, “I need you to take care of me tonight.”

Maggie was proud of her for voicing what she needed-- it’s something they had had to put some work into. “Oh sweetie, of course I will. When will you be home?”

“We need to do an initial debrief in the office but it shouldn’t take longer than an hour or two. Are you at home now?”

“No, actually. I’m at Kara and Lena’s. Lena has had a few… issues.” 

Maggie heard a small shuffle and then it was Kara’s voice coming through the phone. She assumed Kara had been nearby and snagged the phone when she heard Maggie talk about Lena. “Wait, what? What’s going on? Is she okay? What happened?” Her voice was clearly frantic.

“Well she’s physically fine but she’s been through a lot emotionally.”

“Explain.” It didn’t take super hearing to hear the tension and worry in Kara’s voice. 

Maggie sighed deeply, knowing firsthand what Kara was about to go through. “She refused to drop for almost the entire week, which led to her crashing during a meeting. Hard. Full on tantrum. Crying, screaming, kicking things, you know the deal.”

Kara made a pained sound and Maggie’s heart clenched in empathy. “That was on Thursday morning. She… Well, she hasn’t aged up since.”

“No.” Kara sounded heartbroken. “I’ll be there in five minutes.”

Alex’s voice came through muffled and in the background but still distinguishable. “Kara, we have to debrief.”

Kara’s voice, also quieter. “I’ll speed write my synopsis and do the full thing later.”

“You know that’s not protocol.”

Kara’s voice turned resolute. “I’m going to Lena. She’s been dropped for over three days already, Alex. Three days! She’s crashed and she’s scared and she needs me. I’m her Mommy and I’m going.”

“Three days?” Alex’s voice sounded far away, in more than just physical distance from the phone. Maggie knew she was remembering her own prolonged drop. 

“Yes.”

“Then go. And don’t leave her side for a second.”

“Believe me, I won’t.” 

Maggie heard some rustling and then Kara’s voice was back. “I’m on my way.” 

And before Maggie had even hung up the phone, Kara was standing at the door to the balcony.

Maggie walked over when Kara didn’t move for a few seconds. They could clearly see Lena but her back was turned while she watched tv so Lena couldn’t see them.

“Am I a bad Mommy?” Kara’s eyes didn’t leave Lena but Maggie knew the question was for her.

“Why would you think that, Kara?” Despite knowing why, having had those doubts herself plenty of times, Maggie wanted to hear Kara say her reasons.

“What do you mean why would I think that? I-- I left her! I ran off to another Earth and left her here without me. I know her issues with abandonment and god why did I do that?” Kara sounded beyond pained and a tear fell from her eye as she looked at Lena. “I left her alone with only a five minute explanation and she’s suffering so much because of me. Because of me.”

Maggie sighed and looked at Kara. “You’re not a bad Mommy, Kara. Hey hey hey--” she spoke quickly and raised her hand when Kara opened her mouth to protest, “listen to me. You’re not a bad Mommy, and honestly the fact that you’re worried you are proves that.”

Kara glanced at her like she was crazy. 

“I’m serious, Kara. A bad Mommy wouldn’t violate work protocol to rush to her little’s side. A bad Mommy wouldn’t make sure someone was there to watch out for her little when she had to leave. A bad Mommy wouldn’t be reduced to tears at the mere thought of being a bad Mommy.”

“Look, Kara, as Bigs we have certain decisions we have to make. We love our littles more than life itself, it’s not even a question. I would lay down my life for Alex in a heartbeat, and you would do the same for Lena in whatever the super speed equivalent of a heartbeat is, right?”

Kara grudgingly nodded at Maggie’s attempt at humor.

“But sometimes life gets in the way. You had to go do your job. How many people did you save? No I’m serious, how many people did you save?”

Kara looked at Maggie and said “Billions.”

Maggie nodded, having received the answer she expected. “Life got in the way. Billions of lives got in the way, actually. You and Alex had to go and help those people-- you had to do a job nobody else could. Let me ask you something else. Am I a bad Mama for letting Alex go on this mission?”

“What?” Kara looked appalled. “Of course not, it’s her job.”

“Exactly. It’s her job. And it’s your job. Lena knows that and she would be saying the same things I am right now if she were in her adult headspace.”

“But I hurt her.”

“Yeah, you did.”

“Well that’s reassuring.” Kara mumbled.

“I’m here to give it to you straight, kid, not sugar coat it. You hurt her. You hurt your little in order to do your job and save billions of lives. I let my little go do her job, and if that brief conversation I just had with her was any indication, it hurt her too. It sucks, but that’s life. We can’t always avoid hurting them, and yeah, sometimes we’re going to make mistakes, but what makes us good Bigs is that we _keep trying_. Okay?”

Kara still didn’t look entirely convinced.

“Look, Lena clearly has some issues. With abandonment, with how she deals with stress, with a lot of different things. This separation triggered some of those issues for her, and you know what? It’s not going to be the last time. I know in the scheme of things your bond with Lena is still fairly new, so let me give you a bit of seasoned advice. Being a Big is hard. We make mistakes, we make sacrifices, we make tough choices. But we never, and I mean never, stop loving our littles and trying to give the world to them.”

“And now I’m starting to sound all preacher-y even to my own ears, so let’s wrap this up. You can’t avoid Lena getting hurt. Pain is a part of life, it can and must come. All you can do is work with her and do your best to help her through it when it does happen. And that’s exactly what you need to do right now.”

“So stop hiding out here and feeling sorry for yourself, and get in there and see your little girl. She needs you, Kara.”

Kara had started earnestly crying halfway through Maggie’s speech, and at the end of it she wrapped Maggie in a hug that was just on the tight side of comfortable. 

“Okay Supergirl, little tight there.”

Kara wetly chuckled and released Maggie, wiping at her eyes once she had. “Thank you. For talking to me, for taking care of her, for everything. You should get home now and get ready for Alex. I know for a fact that she’s going to be very happy to see you.”

Maggie clapped Kara’s shoulder and nodded. “Let me grab my bag and say bye to Lena, then I’ll be out of here.” She started to walk toward the hall when she paused and looked back at Kara. “Oh, and before I forget, she’s been having a hard time speaking these last few days so I tried to teach her some basic sign.”

“Like sign language? Did it work?”

“It’s Lena Luthor, genius extraordinaire, of course it worked. Do you know any?”

“Umm, maybe like a handful of signs, nothing major.” 

“Okay, then quick crash course. Use whatever super brain powers you have to remember these.” Maggie rapidly did a string of signs for Kara and then walked to the hallway.

Kara looked at Lena, who was watching Maggie walk into the hallway in curiosity, and took a deep breath. She was a good Mommy, and her little girl needed her. She could do this.

“Lena? Baby?” She spoke softly, not wanting to startle her.

Lena’s head whipped around faster than Kara thought humans could even move, and her eyes widened as she took in Kara standing just inside the balcony doors. And then she immediately burst into tears and held her arms out for Kara to pick her up.

“Oh baby girl, I’m here, I’m here.” Kara raced over and picked Lena up, cradling her against her chest and kissing all over her face and head. 

“I missed you so much, Lena. I thought about you every second of every day. Mommy is so, so sorry she had to leave you.”

Still Lena just cried and cried, and Kara held her tight and muttered reassurances. Maggie came out a minute later and smiled understandingly at Kara. She walked over and placed her own kiss to the side of Lena’s head. “I’m going home to see Aunt Alex now, Lena. I had a lot of fun with you these past few days. I love you, little bug.”

Maggie thought she saw Lena nod, but it was hard to tell. Either way she placed another kiss on Lena’s head, patted Kara reassuringly on the arm, and left the apartment. 

It was over 20 minutes before Lena’s sobs slowed any perceptible amount, and every time Kara shifted, Lena clung on tighter. Kara eventually moved them to the couch, and she hugged Lena as tightly as she safely could.

A little while later Lena finally stopped crying, but when Kara tried to push her into a sitting position so she could lean back and look at her face, Lena let out a panicked cry and hugged her tighter. “I’m not going anywhere, baby. I just wanted to look at your beautiful face. It’s my favoritest face in the whole wide world.”

She tried again to lean back and look at Lena but Lena still refused to let her go. Spotting something on the coffee table, she decided to try another tactic. “What’s that?” Kara said, pointing to the cards on the coffee table. She turned her body so Lena could see the table if she cracked her eyes. “Are those cards? Who are they for?”

Lena reached out an arm and leaned slightly toward the table, clearly desiring to grab them, but she refused to let any distance come between hers and Kara’s bodies. Kara smiled and carried her to the table, leaning down so Lena could grab one of the cards. 

When Lena had it clutched in her hand, Kara returned them to the couch. “Is it for me?”

Lena nodded from her spot tucked into Kara’s chin and pushed the card into her Mommy’s hand. Kara looked down at it for several long seconds before glancing at Alex’s card to confirm that the color scheme was indeed deliberate. She teared up a small bit and kissed the side of Lena’s head. “Did you color it Mommy’s colors?” Lena nodded.

“I think this is amazing, and beautiful, and wonderful, and spectacular, and perfect. Just. Like. You.” She punctuated each of those final words with a kiss to Lena’s head. 

“Hey, can you sit up so I can see your pretty face? I promise I won’t go anywhere. I promise.” 

It took several long seconds and another couple of kisses, but Lena relented and sat up in Kara’s lap. She shifted so she was sitting facing Kara with one leg on either side of her, and Kara got to look into her eyes for the first time in over a week. Lena reached up a hand and placed it on the side of Kara’s face, and Kara leaned into it, reassured by the warmth. Spitting out her pacifier, Lena very quietly and slowly said “Mommy wee.” She sounded angry and hurt and it tore at Kara’s very soul to know that she caused Lena this pain.

“Mommy did leave, and I am so sorry about that, but Mommy came back. Okay? Mommy has an important job and sometimes I have to leave, but I will always come back to you, okay? You’re my life, my entire universe. I love you. Okay?”

“Stay. No wee.”

“That’s right baby, I’m staying right here.”

Lena’s brow was furrowed and Kara wished she could reach up and smooth it out, wiping away all of Lena’s troubles with a simple gesture. But she couldn’t, and when Lena opened and closed her mouth without anything coming out and started becoming clearly agitated at her lack of speech, Kara knew that they were in this for the long haul.

Finally Lena put her pacifier back in, giving up on talking, and looked down at her lap. She picked up her hands and made a motion several times before Kara realized it was a sign. Racking her brain, she rolled through Maggie’s crash course until she got to the only sign that was close enough to what Lena was doing. 

Lena was telling her that she was scared. 

Kara pulled her back into a tight hug and whispered fervently in Lena’s ear. “I am not going anywhere, Lena. We’re going to stay here for as long as this takes, for as long as it takes for you to trust me again, okay? God, I’m so sorry I hurt you. I wish I could take that away but I can’t. I love you. I love you. I love you.”

Lena had started crying again, and Kara kept talking. “I’m staying right here. I’m not leaving. I love you.” She repeated the soothing words like a mantra while Lena clung onto her like she was afraid she would disappear any second. Which she probably was, Kara reasoned. 

When Lena had once again stopped crying, Kara kept up her back rubbing and quiet assurances for a few minutes longer. Eventually they lapsed into a peaceful silence and Lena’s breathing came back to normal and she nodded against Kara’s chest. Kara hoped she was saying that she believed her. 

A few minutes after that Kara decided to try and get a response from Lena. “Is the other card for Auntie Alex?”

Lena nodded.

“I can give it to her when I see her next, okay?” Lena nodded once again. 

The rest of their night passed by in what was essentially their normal routine. Kara changed Lena’s diaper, made Lena dinner, and gave Lena a bath. The only big difference was that every time Kara moved more than two feet away Lena immediately started panicking and crying. In response, Kara stayed right by her side, holding her when she had a free arm and at least maintaining contact when she didn’t. 

When they finally fell asleep that night it was in the same bed with Kara hugging Lena to her chest. “I love you, baby girl” Kara whispered against Lena’s hair. “Wuv Mommy” was Lena’s sleepy response.

It would be over a week before either Lena or Kara returned to work. Lena fluctuated between dropped and adult states over the next several days with a fluidity Kara had never seen from her. They had serious adult discussions about Lena’s past and what she would need in the future if Kara ever had to go away again, all of which Kara felt was very good progress. They also had several more long cries, on both of their parts, and one particularly angry tantrum, on Lena’s part. 

But at the end of that week Kara felt that they were once again in a good place. That her baby trusted her again, and most importantly, that her baby was no longer in such pain. 

\---

After leaving Kara and Lena’s apartment that Sunday afternoon, Maggie heeded Kara’s advice and went home to get ready for Alex. She texted Alex to ask if she wanted a ride home or if she would drive herself, and Alex responded saying she would drive herself so her car was home too. Maggie grabbed Alex’s fun pajamas, put Mulan in the DVD player just to be ready, and started poking around the pantry seeing what she could make for dinner. They didn’t have much in the way of things to prepare, but Maggie wasn’t worried. She was almost certain that Alex would beg for mac and cheese and some kind of chocolate-y dessert. Just as certain as she was that she would cave and say yes. 

While Maggie was doing all of this, Alex was following protocol and debriefing at the office. It took her about an hour to finish the initial debrief and a little bit longer to file some additional paperwork. It was during the paperwork that Alex started feeling a little, well, little. 

Knowing herself well enough to know that she was fading too quickly to be safe driving home, she called Maggie as quickly as she could. Maggie picked up on the second ring.

“Hey sweetheart, you heading home?”

That was all it took to send Alex over the edge. “Mama?” Her voice was small, quiet, and relieved. She was a little girl who had missed her Mama.

“Hey baby girl, where are you?” Maggie, in contrast, sounded worried. She was probably thinking about the several times that Alex had dropped in strange and less than nice environments. After the first one of those incidents Maggie drilled little Alex on how to call her on the phone and made sure she memorized her number. It had come in handy a couple of times since then. 

“Umm.” Alex looked around the room she was in. She knew it had a name, Uncle J’onn had told her once, but she couldn’t think of it right now. “Uh, the room with the computers?”

Maggie let out a relieved breath. “Okay, so you’re still at your adult work?”

Alex nodded before she remembered what Mama always said about using her voice on the phone because she couldn’t see her. “Yeah.”

“Can you give the phone to one of the grown ups?”

“Yeah. Hold on.”

Alex walked over to the other side of the room where Winn was sitting at one of the computers typing something. The screen had lots of numbers and letters on it and it didn’t make any sense to Alex. “Winny?” She was standing slightly behind and to the left of him. 

He turned, clearly annoyed. He hated when they called him that to make fun of him, which happened far more than he cared for, despite his many protests. His annoyance immediately went away when he saw Alex though, as something in the way she was standing and holding herself let him know she was dropped. So instead he gave her a big grin. 

“Hey girl, what’s up?”

“Mama wants to talk to a growed up.” She looked at the phone and Winn smiled at her saying growed up. _Definitely_ dropped. 

“Well you’re in luck, as I happen to be one of those.” 

Winn held out his hand for the phone and tickled Alex briefly when she moved in to hand it over. She laughed and jumped back a few steps, sticking her tongue out when she was safely out of his reach. 

“Hey Maggie, this is Winn.”

“Hey Winn. I’m on my way there now, will you look after her until I get there?”

“Of course. Alex and I are great buds, right girl?” He looked up at Alex, who just stuck her tongue out at him again. 

Maggie laughed. “Good luck with that. Help her get her stuff together and meet me in the garage in 15, if you don’t mind.”

“I don’t mind one bit. I’ll see you soon.”

Winn put the phone in his pocket slowly, stretched his fingers, and then suddenly and without warning leapt out of his chair at Alex. “Tickle monster attack!”

He ran around with Alex for about 10 minutes before reminding her that her Mama would be there in 5 minutes and that she had to pack her bag if she wanted to go see her. Alex’s eyes widened comically and she sprinted over to where her stuff was, quickly shoving everything inside of her bag. In less than two minutes from when Winn said that, she was wearing her backpack, bouncing up and down in excitement, and saying “Let’s go! Let’s go!”

Laughing, Winn took her by the hand and led her down to the garage. Their timing was perfect because just as they walked through the door, Maggie pulled up in front of it. 

“Mama! Mama!”

Maggie threw it in park and bounded out of the car, picking up Alex in a gigantic hug and twirling her around as soon as she saw her. “Little bit, I missed you so much!”

“I missed you too, Mama. So so so so so so so much!”

Maggie laughed and kissed Alex on both cheeks, forehead, and nose before Alex squirmed away from her laughing. 

“Did you have fun playing with Winny Poo?”

“Lots of fun! I’m too fast for him though” Alex said smugly. 

“I bet you are. Toss your bag in the passenger’s seat for me.”

Alex walked over to put her bag up front and Maggie shook Winn’s hand. “Thanks Winn.”

“Any time. Though I wouldn’t mind if you stopped encouraging the Winny Poo thing.”

Maggie just laughed and walked away, helping Alex into the back and buckling her in. Winn stayed and watched them.

When Maggie got back into the driver’s seat and buckled her seatbelt, she rolled down hers and Alex’s windows. “Say thank you to Winny Poo.”

Winn rolled his eyes at her, but Alex’s excited “Thanks Winny Poo! You’re the bestest” made him smile warmly and think that maybe the name wasn’t so bad. Not that he would tell anyone that, of course.

The car ride home was filled almost entirely with Alex’s chatter. She started by talking about what she and Winn had done, then asked her Mama what she had been up to while they were apart, interjecting a lot of her own comments and questions while Maggie tried to talk, and by the time they were walking inside their place she was telling Maggie all about who she had met on the other Earth.

“And they were _so_ cool. Barry can run super duper fast, like even faster than Aunt Kara I think. And Felicity is good at computers! Just like Winny Poo. I told her about him. They should get married.”

Maggie opened the door and ushered Alex inside. 

“Ooh and Jax and the old guy can turn into a guy on fire. They can even fly, it’s super cool.”

“Oh?” Maggie nodded along, knowing that she was going to have to get this entire story again when Alex was aged up. 

“Were there any other littles there?”

At this question Alex became even more excited, if possible, and nodded enthusiastically. “Sara is six! That’s only a year older than me.”

“Oh did you make a friend? Tell me about Sara.”

“Sara is like the bestest ever. She was an adult when I first got little and I got to see her do cool ninja stuff. Then she got little too though and we got to hang out with Felicity for a little bit. Sara is a _time traveller_ , isn’t that the coolest thing ever?”

“That is definitely the coolest thing ever.”

“I know, right? And she said that her growed up self used to be an assassin. I don’t know what that means but it sounds really cool.”

“Oh.” Well that was slightly more worrying, but Maggie decided to trust Kara’s judgement. If Sara was dangerous to Alex, she was sure they wouldn’t have been allowed to play together. 

“Yeah, and she’s super pretty too.” Alex blushed some, though Maggie couldn’t tell if it was because of her half an hour of non-stop talking finally overheating her, or because of the subject matter. That might be a conversation for adult Alex if it was the latter. 

Littles and Bigs never dated each other, given the nature of their relationship and the possibility of a little dropping at any given time. Bigs dated other Bigs and littles dated other littles, though dating was done by a lot more Bigs than littles. Alex’s own parents were a Big couple, though her mom didn’t make her bond until Alex and Kara were out of the house. 

Maggie suspected Alex had a bit of a crush on Sara, which wasn’t unheard of. Though the gender of the crush-ee wasn’t something they had ever explicitly talked about. But whatever, that was a subject for another time.

As predicted, they ate mac and cheese and watched Mulan, and Alex didn’t stop talking and running around the entire time. She was clearly very excited to see Maggie, and it made Maggie happy. 

It wasn’t any surprise that Alex tired herself and started yawning by 9. 

“Come on dear, let’s get you ready for bed.”

Alex nodded and allowed herself to be led toward the bathroom. “Can I sleep with you?”

“Of course you can.”

“Okay good.”

Maggie helped Alex get ready for bed while getting ready for bed herself, and ten minutes later they were crawling into Maggie’s bed. Alex tucked into Maggie’s side.

“I really missed you, Mama.”

“I really missed you too babe, but you’re here now.”

Alex yawned and nodded. “Yeah. I love you Mama.”

“I love you too. Now get some sleep.”

Alex nodded one more time, and not two minutes later she was fast asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not hanging onto this fic for long enough to explore any romantic relationships, but I wanted to put something in that explains how I envision them going in this universe. While I don't begrudge fics that have a Big/little dynamic also being romantic (I've certainly read and enjoyed some of them), I personally like it better when they're not. I also kind of sort of ship Sara Lance with everyone in existence, so I decided to use her as a conduit to explaining this. 
> 
> I'll round this out to an even 10 chapters and then I'll let it go. I have an idea for chapter 9 but not for a good final chapter. If anyone has an idea for a final chapter let me know and I might take you up on it. Otherwise I'm sure I'll think of something.


	9. Invisibility, Rainbows, and Dragons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lena and Alex spend a day together at L-Corp, Maggie goes on a sort of date, and Mushu the dragon makes a cameo.

“Hey, Jessica?” Lena’s heels clicked as she walked by Jessica and into her office. Jessica got up and scurried to follow her inside. 

“Yes, Ms. Luthor?”

Lena tossed her bag into her chair and turned to face Jessica with a small smile. “Maggie is bringing Alex by in about an hour-- you remember Maggie, right?”

Jessica smiled warmly and started nodding but Lena blew through to her next statement, “well anyway, Maggie is bringing Alex by soon. She’s dropped right now and is the cutest little science nerd there is, bar me of course.”

“I want you to get me a list of ongoing projects you think would be interesting to a 5 year old little. I’ll walk her around myself.”

“I’ll get right on that Ms. Luthor.”

Nodding, Lena turned and started unpacking her bag, and Jessica took that as her dismissal and started for the door. She was pretty sure Rick up on seven was working on a new invisibility technology, and she thought she remembered Marty saying something about Julie making a rainbow emitter of some kind. Those sounded like promising leads to start with.

\---

“Knock, knock.” 

Maggie rapped the door and leaned in to Jessica’s part of the office.

“Maggie! So good to see you again. How have you been?” Jessica rose to greet her and gave her a brief hug. She wasn’t really a hugger, and it certainly wasn’t professional, but through the whole little Lena fiasco Jessica had developed a closer bond with Maggie.

“Eh, you know. Same old same old.”

“Oh, of course. Kicking ass and taking names.”

Maggie winked at her. “You know it.”

A thud sounded from the hallway and a young voice sounded out “I okay!”

Maggie just rolled her eyes good-naturedly and turned to look at the door with her hands on her hips. “Alex, get your little butt in here. You better not be breaking any of Aunt Lena’s things. Lena might not let you stay if you break stuff, you know.”

“I’m not I’m not I’m not!” Alex came running into the room at full speed and ran right into Jessica, sending them both to the ground. “Oh no! I sorry!” Alex was so hyperactive that she was up in half a second and hopping up and down in nervousness.

“Are you okay? Please don’t be broken Mama said I can’t break Auntie Lena’s things.” 

Jessica smiled at Alex and stood up, brushing herself off calmly. “I’m not broken.”

“She also isn’t one of Aunt Lena’s things. She’s a person who you owe an apology.” Maggie threw Jessica a look of concern, which Jessica shrugged off with a smile, and then cast her fierce Mama gaze on Alex. 

The little shifted her feet around before taking a deep breath and looking at Jessica. “I’m sorry for knocking you over, miss.”

“Thank you for the apology, Alex. It’s quite alright.” Jessica patted her arm and then gestured to Lena’s door. “Now, shall we go see what Aunt Lena has in store for you today?”

“I still get the tour?” Alex’s dejection immediately flipped to excitement, and sensing another incident, Maggie intervened. 

“ _If_ you can behave yourself. Can you?”

Nodding so fast Maggie worried she was going to get whiplash, Alex fervently agreed.

“Well alrighty then, let’s get started.”

Jessica walked ahead of them into Lena’s expansive office. Lena was sitting at her desk typing something on her computer, but she looked up with a broad smile and closed the computer without a second thought when she saw who was coming in.

“Alex, Maggie, right on time.”

“Aunt Lena! Your office is so big!”

“Yes, I suppose it is. Wait until you see the labs, they’re even bigger.”

Lena walked out from behind her desk to give Maggie and Alex a hug, the latter of which seemed to be struggling to process a room bigger than Lena’s office.

“You got her?” Maggie asked Lena.

“I do. We’ll have a great time, Jessica helped me map out the entire itinerary. All very age appropriate, Mama bear, don’t worry.” Lena said the last bit with a joking air, and Maggie rolled her eyes in response.

“Alright, alright. I’ll be back to get her around 5?”

“Sounds perfect.”

“Alex? Come say bye to Mama.”

Alex tore her eyes away from the office and ran over to give Maggie a hug and a kiss. 

“Have a good day. Make sure you be good for Aunt Lena and learn lots, okay?”

Nodding, Alex said “I will, Mama.”

“Okay. I’ll be back to pick you up later. I love you.”

“I love you too.”

After giving Lena another hug and Alex an air kiss, Maggie followed Jessica back out of the inner office. Maggie seemed a bit hesitant about the whole thing, so Jessica tried to put her at ease.

“It really is a great day Lena is taking her on. Totally good for a budding nerd like Alex.”

“I believe it.” Jessica gave Maggie a look that said she saw right through whatever mask she was trying to throw up.

“But?”

Maggie laughed. “Nothing major. I’m just worried that I won’t get any sleep for the next three nights from Alex’s non-stop talking about it.”

Laughing, Jessica leaned back against her desk. “Very true. I remember the first time Ron--”

Suddenly cutting off, Jessica looked down and away from Maggie.

“Who’s Ron?”

Jessica furrowed her brow and shook her head, visibly regretting her slip of tongue and panicking.

“Um. He’s, he was--” Jessica gave up on finishing her sentence and turned to walk away from Maggie and escape, but Maggie snagged her wrist gently and turned her back around. When she looked into Jessica’s eyes she understood in an instant. 

Jessica was a Big. A Big who had lost her little.

Without even thinking, Maggie enveloped Jessica into her arms. They stood silently for a few minutes until the door to the inner office opened and then quickly shut behind them. Maggie heard Lena say a muffled “Alex sweetheart, can you go grab my water for me? It’s behind my desk.”

The door then opened again and Lena stepped out. Jessica disengaged from Maggie and turned to look the other way.

“What’s wrong?” Lena’s voice was concerned.

Maggie wasn’t sure what would be overstepping or not, but clearly Jessica wasn’t up for speaking so she said simply “Painful memories.”

Lena’s eyes went from puzzled to understanding in a second and she looked at Jessica’s back. “Take the rest of the day, Jessica. I blocked everything out for Alex anyway so I won’t have much need for you.”

Jessica turned back around, wiping her sleeve across her face and shaking her head. “No, I’m fine. Really, I’m fine. I just hadn’t said his name in a while. It snuck up on me. I’ll be fine in a minute.”

“Jessica, take the day off. That’s not a request.” Lena rarely adopted her strict CEO voice with Jessica, but today she made an exception.

“Aunt Lena?” Alex’s voice came muffled through the door and Lena slipped back through without another word. 

Jessica stood still for a minute not quite knowing what to do, and Maggie decided to take action. “Grab your stuff, come on.”

“What?”

“I said grab your stuff, come on. We’re going out.”

Still not moving, Jessica just looked perplexed. “Where?”

“We’ll figure it out on the way. Grab your shit, let’s go. Time is wasting.” Maggie made a shooing gesture toward Jessica’s desk and Jessica finally went to put on her jacket and grab her bag. When she was ready she turned to look at Maggie and said “Okay. Now what?”

“Now I take you out. Sawyer style.”

\---

“Why’d you go out there?” Alex handed Lena her water and looked at the door questioningly.

“Oh I just needed to tell Jessica she can take the day off. I think we can handle it on our own, right?”

Alex puffed out her chest in pride and nodded.

“That’s what I thought. Okay, I think once you grab your bag we can head out to our first destination.”

Lena had scarcely finished talking when Alex was rushing to get her bag. “Okay I’m ready let’s go.”

Smiling fondly at Alex, who was holding her backpack straps and looking utterly adorable in her white shorts and blue shirt with Albert Einstein sticking his tongue out on the front, Lena held out her hand.

“Alright, let’s go. First stop is the invisibility room.”

Lena spent the entire walk telling Alex that she would have to “wait and see,” so it was a bit of a relief when they finally arrived at lab three. She kept a firm hold of Alex’s hand as they walked in, and the lab tech near the door looked at her with eyes wide in alarm before quite literally sprinting away.

“Why did he run?”

Opening her mouth to answer, Lena was cut off by the lab three head, Rick. “Ms. Luthor! Welcome to lab three, what can I do for you today?”

“Rick, hi.” Rick was a large man with a booming voice, and Lena couldn’t help but smile when interacting with him. “My niece here is _very_ interested in what we do here at L-Corp. We were hoping we could get a tour of what you’re working on.”

Rick leaned down to look at Alex and pointedly smiled at her shirt. “Is that right? Ms…?”

“Alex! My name is Alex. Is it true that you can make things invibisle-- I mean, invisible? That’s SO cool. How does it work? Is that what that thing is over there?” Alex pointed at a large machine in the corner and tried to walk over there but Lena pulled her back in. 

Most kids, and adults for that matter, were so intimidated by his first appearance that Rick was more than slightly taken aback by Alex’s boldness. He took it in stride though and offered his arm as an escort for Alex instead of Lena. Lena nodded her permission to Alex, and the little looped her arm through Rick’s massive one.

“To answer your questions, Ms. Alex,” Alex giggled at being called that, “yes and no. We make things almost completely disappear from sight, but one hundred percent invisibility is still beyond our reach.”

Alex was craning her neck trying to take everything in. “How does it work though?”

“Well we have two capabilities right now. The first is the ability to make yourself less visible, which we’ve been calling the invisibility suit, and the second isn’t really named yet, but it’s the ability to make other things less visible.”

Rick scanned them through another door in the lab and led Alex and Lena through an approximately 10 meter tunnel. They came out of the other side and immediately saw a woman wearing a skin tight grey suit. The same lab tech from earlier, who Lena now assumed had sprinted off to tell Rick that the CEO was in his lab, was about to press a button.

“Matthew, hold on just a moment. We’re being observed by Ms. Luthor and Ms. Alex here, let’s allow them to get into the viewing area.”

Matthew paused and Rick led Alex and Lena to a small area behind a taped line with a few folding chairs set up. Rick took the seat next to them, which creaked precariously under his weight, and raised a hand to Matthew. “Okay, cleared to proceed.”

“Invisibility suit. Chameleon sequence, test three.”

Alex gripped the edge of her seat and watched with excitement as Matthew pressed a red button. For two full seconds nothing happened, but then, suddenly, the woman wasn’t there. Alex gasped and grabbed Lena’s arm. Lena looked at Rick and inclined her head, which was the only show of being impressed that she was willing to show in this early stage. Wanting to see how far he had come since his last report, she said “Modulate,” and he nodded.

“Commence chameleon modulation sequence.”

The screen behind the woman started slowly changing colors, and she remained unseen. Lena and Alex watched anxiously as the colors picked up speed and patterns were added, and about 15 seconds in Lena could see the outline of the woman where she stood. “Alex, can you see her?”

Alex nodded and looked at her watch. “I saw her 6 seconds ago.”

Rick laughed. “I can see the scientist in her already.”

By 30 seconds in the suit had clearly reached its limit and Rick signalled to Matthew to stop the test. The woman started peeling off the suit, which looked like a wetsuit material when she was finally out of it, and walked over to Matthew to review the results. Alex looked eagerly at the suit and up at Lena, clearly indicating her desire. Without even saying a word, Lena pointed at Rick.

“Mr. Rick, can I try?” She plied on as much sugary sweetness as she could, and Rick smiled at her widely. “Of course you can, Ms. Alex.”

He looked over to Matthew and the woman and called out, “Matthew, go ahead and get set up for a second test. Becky, help Ms. Alex here get into a suit.”

Becky smiled warmly at Alex and said “No problem. Come on, Ms. Alex, let’s get you suited up.”

As Alex followed Becky behind a curtained wall, Lena approached Rick.

“Definite improvement, but you know we still have a long way to go before we meet your projections.”

“We can do it, Ms. Luthor. I’m confident in my team, and, if I may say so without sounding too conceited, with my brain.”

Lena smiled. “To the general public that might sound conceited, but I understand. I think if any brain can figure it out it’s yours, Rick. Keep up the good work.”

They talked about project details for another minute before Becky poked her head out of the curtain and asked “Hey, is it alright if we modify the suit? Nothing I won’t be able to change back in five minutes.”

“Um, sure?” Rick was confused as to why they would be trying to modify his suit, but he trusted Becky to keep the damage to a minimal. Becky gave him a thumbs up and slipped back through the curtain. “This will be interesting.”

Three minutes later, when Alex managed to stay almost totally invisible for 30 seconds after starting the modulation sequence, Rick was in awe. “What did you modify, Becky?”

Becky touched her index finger to her nose and pointed at Alex with the other. “I changed what she told me to.”

“Ms. Alex, how did you do that?” 

“I just wanted to be invibisle for longer. Did it work?”

Lena walked over and started helping Alex get out of the suit. “It certainly did, baby girl.”

“Yay!”

“Yes, but what did you do to make the suit perform better?” Rick’s curiosity was apparent.

“I just made it prettier and nicer. Ask Becky.”

“Becky?” Rick turned to Becky now.

“She said the wires looked ugly, so we switched some stuff around to where it looked ‘prettier,’ and voila, it worked better.”

“Fascinating. Ms. Luthor, did you say she’s your niece?”

“I did.”

“Any chance she wants to hang out down here more often? It sounds like she has a natural inclination toward magnetic balance. I’ve heard of people being able to improve designs by feeling the flux and who knows what else, but not many.”

Lena looked over at Alex, who was now out of the suit and annoying Matthew by pushing all of the buttons on his control board. “I’ll certainly talk to her Big about it. I’d say there’s a good chance of more visits.”

“Awesome. Is her Big your sister then? Are there any other awesome genes in her line?”

Lena smiled at his obvious attempt at recruiting. “My Big is her sister. Brilliant in many of her own ways, but my Big was adopted into her family. Unfortunately your talent allocation stops here today, Rick.”

He laughed loudly. “Can’t blame a guy for trying.”

Lena and Alex watched Rick demonstrate the turning other things invisible technology, but as it was more or less a series of elaborate projectors, it wasn’t quite as exciting. Alex did offer a valuable insight or two in their designs though, but every time Rick tried to ask her why she just said “to make it prettier!” like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Pretty soon it was time for lunch though, so Lena made their excuses and led Alex out of the lab. Becky slipped something into Alex’s hand with a wink though, and when Alex looked down she smiled widely at seeing the smallest invisibility projector in her hand. She put it in her bag, trying to be sneaky, but Lena and Rick both saw her and smiled at each other. She deserved a souvenir.

They took a quick detour to Lena’s office to drop off a few files Rick had sent her out with, and then, since Jessica wasn’t there to send out for lunch and Lena knew the number of absolutely nowhere, they went to the cafeteria. 

Lena didn’t think of herself as better than her employees, not in the slightest. She worried it came off that way sometimes though, especially as she could count the number of times she had eaten in the cafeteria with them on one hand. And not even use all of her fingers.

She just felt more comfortable tucked away in her office, whether she was eating by herself, with Jessica, or with Kara. It was her space, it was controlled, it was quiet and orderly. The cafeteria was noisy and disorganized and even on the best of days her presence in any room attracted staring, so the cafeteria, with its over one hundred people, was just a lot. 

But when she pitched the idea Alex started doing her super cute little bouncy thing, so of course here they were about to walk inside. 

They walked in, grabbed trays, and hopped in line.

“Aunt Lena can I have dessert?”

Lena smiled at Alex and tried to ignore the eyes on the back of her head and the whispered hush that fell on every table they walked passed. “I suppose that depends. Am I going to get in trouble with your Mama?”

Alex smiled in a way oddly reminiscent of adult Alex and leaned in to whisper “Not if we don’t tell her.” 

Laughing openly and not caring who stared, Lena ruffled Alex’s head. “You’re trouble, kid. But okay, _one_ piece of pie.”

“Yay!”

After they got their food, including a piece of pie for each of them, Lena looked around for a seat. Of course they went during peak lunch hour though, because nearly every table was at least half full. Feeling a slight panic and beginning of a flashback to high school, Lena froze.

Concerned, Alex tugged on Lena’s sleeve. “Aunt Lena are you okay?”

Lena shook herself out of it and smiled sweetly at Alex. “Yes sweetheart, I’m alright. Come on, let’s go sit.”

She led them to the closest table, which had four low level employees sitting at it. When Lena and Alex took their seats, the employees looked at one another in panic and quickly stood up and left. Lena sighed and started picking at her food, not as hungry as she had been ten minutes before.

“Why are they scared of us?” Alex didn’t look upset, just curious. 

“Oh, sweetheart. They’re scared of me, not you.” 

“But why?” Alex looked around in confusion. “You’re like the bestest person in the world!”

All bad feelings flying away in the face of Alex’s youthful praise, Lena genuinely smiled. “Well, I think a big part of it is that I’m the boss. The boss is always a teensy bit intimidating.”

“Wait…” Alex looked like she had just understood something for the first time, “you’re the boss of _everyone_ , not just Jessica?”

“Everyone in this building, at least, yes.”

“Woah. That is so cool! I want to be the boss! Can I be the boss? Can you make them do anything? That is so so so cool!” Alex got a little too excited and her elbow wound up in her pie, but she didn’t even notice.

“Alex, dear, give me your arm.” As Lena wiped off the pie, she thought of how to explain her job to Alex.

“I suppose there are some pretty cool things to being the boss, but it’s a lot of work too.”

“How? Can’t you just make them do all of your work?”

Lena chuckled. “Not exactly. I have to make sure they do their own jobs, and that they do them well. I’m responsible for everything good and bad to happen in this company. I’m in charge of financing, research, morale, you name it. It’s not always easy.”

“Hmm.” Alex took a bite of pie while thinking about this crazy new information. “Yeah I guess so. Still seems cool to me though.”

After they finished up eating, Lena took them down to the fifth floor for their next adventure. Something a bit more…colorful…than the last.

\---

Maggie mopped up the last of the ketchup with her greasy fries and looked across at Jessica, who was currently cramming three onion rings into her mouth in the least dignified way possible. 

“See? Who else is going to treat you to a feast like this? Totally worth coming out with me.”

Jessica smiled in a way that didn’t quite reach her eyes, but was also better than the ones she gave an hour ago, so Maggie was counting it as a win. “Yes, I suppose it isn’t entirely terrible.”

Grabbing her chest in mock horror, Maggie leaned back in her seat. “Not entirely terrible? You wound me! I’ll have you know that I paid six dollars for this meal, and another ten dollars to get into the batting cages! I’m a high roller for you, baby.”

Rolling her eyes and giving an almost totally genuine smile, Jessica scoffed. “Right. Am I supposed to pretend that I didn’t see that you’re friends with the owner of these cages and that she let you in for free?”

“I know not what you speak.” Maggie’s face went from laughing to serious in the span of a second. 

“Is that so?” Jessica leaned closer to Maggie and stared intently into her eyes. 

“Yep.” Maggie’s serious face was cracking though, and when Jessica winked at her she totally lost it and started laughing loudly. 

Once she had calmed down, she took a sip of water and looked at Jessica more intently. “Seriously though, you alright? You want to talk about anything? Literally anything.”

Jessica ate the last onion ring in silence as she contemplated Maggie’s offer. It had been a very long time since she had actually talked to anyone. Too long, if she was being honest.

So she decided to take a leap, and she nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, I would like that.”

Maggie nodded and leaned in, placing her warm hand over Jessica’s. “At your own pace. Kara speed or me speed, it doesn’t matter.”

At Jessica’s puzzled look, Maggie cracked a small smile. “Kind of an inside joke, I guess. We had a race once, a bunch of us. Kara came in first and I came in last, so they started saying ‘Maggie to Kara’ instead of ‘slow to fast.’”

That got a small smile out of Jessica and seemed to give her the final bump to start talking.

“Okay. I went to school with Rob since kindergarten. We didn’t know each other well, but we were at least tangentially familiar with one another. Then, one day in high school, we got paired together on a science project. He came over to my house the night before it was due to put the finishing touches on it. And then, while he was holding a tiny plastic spaceship to put on the model, everything changed.”

Jessica turned her hand over so it was holding Maggie’s, but she kept her gaze down on the table.

“He looked at me and I just…I just knew. This boy was mine. I would die for him, kill for him, do whatever and be whoever he needed me to be. And then he called me mom and I understood logically what had just happened. We had bonded. We were 16 years old, and we had bonded. It was extremely rare, I knew that, forming a bond that young. But I knew I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

“We spent the rest of that night playing with the spaceships and I guessed he was around seven, give or take a year in either direction. He was supposed to drive himself home, but obviously that wasn’t going to happen, and he didn’t seem to want to leave me, so I called his mom. His biological mom, that is.”

“I told her I had just bonded with her son, and at first she thought I was playing some sick joke. But then she heard him call for me, for his mom, in the background, and she knew it was real. She drove over, brought a few of his things that would last for a while just in case, and asked me to tea that weekend.”

“We didn’t go to school for the rest of the week, trying to figure out what we had. We both felt it, we both knew it was real, but we had expected at least another decade before bonding with someone. Not that we didn’t want it, no of course we did. We were just unprepared for the intensity of emotion. Though I suppose nobody ever is when it comes to bonding.”

Maggie nodded in agreement and rubbed circles into Jessica’s hand.

“He had lunch with my family while I went to tea with his mother. She was as shocked as we were, but was absolutely incredible to me. She had more extra space in her house than I had in mine, so she set me up a room next to his for when he was dropped and wanted his mom. It couldn’t have been easy for her, having to hand off all of her legal custody and half of her emotional one, but she always did what was best for him.”

“We made it work through the rest of high school, but I was a year ahead of him because I skipped one when I was younger. So the issue of college came up. I had been set to go halfway across the country, but I couldn’t make him make that move and leave his friends and family, and I certainly couldn’t leave him. So I went to a school an hour away, got registered as a Big at my school so they would understand if I had to leave suddenly, and we continued to make it work.”

“I missed some class, he missed some class, but my baby and I were happy. We did all sorts of things together, me and Ron. We went to museums, zoos, aquariums, everything. If it was nerdy you could count on him liking it. Alex reminds me a lot of him in that way.”

“He graduated and came to the same school, obviously, and we got to share a room, given our bond. It made dating nearly impossible, I mean imagine trying to bring a girl to your room when you don’t know whether you’re going to have an 18 year old or a 7 year old waiting for you.”

Maggie’s eyebrow shot up in interest at the “girl” aspect, but she just nodded and kept listening.

“My senior year is when it happened. He finished his finals early and was going to drive home before me to help his mom start setting up for the graduation party for his little sister. I didn’t want him to half to wait an extra four hours before I would be done so I told him to go ahead and I would meet him there.” 

Her voice was starting to get thick, and Maggie tensed, sensing what was coming. 

“He was hit by a drunk driver an hour into my exam.” Jessica had tears silently streaming down her face now, and when Maggie made a motion to move around the table to her, she held up her hand and shook her head. Clearly she was going to finish the story, and Maggie respected the hell out of her in that moment.

“I knew it immediately. Immediately. I was halfway through number twenty and I just pulled out my phone in class and dialed. I called him, he didn’t answer. I called again, still no answer. I called his mom, she answered and said she hadn’t heard from him. I was near hysterics at this point and everyone in class was looking at me. I didn’t care. I didn’t care about anything except the stabbing pain in my chest that was growing more painful every fucking second.”

“I told her that he wasn’t okay, that something was wrong, that something was so fucking wrong and that I was scared. She tried to calm me down, tell me that he was probably just stuck in traffic, but she knew. We both did. The bond doesn’t lie.”

“My professor sent everyone else away and stayed with me, not wanting me to be alone. When the police called me an hour later it was just to confirm what I had already known since number twenty. Ron was dead.”

Jessica started openly sobbing at this, and Maggie decided that enough was enough and she moved to pull her into her arms. After a few minutes of that Jessica leaned back and nodded, and Maggie wordlessly returned to her seat, not letting go of Jessica’s hand though.

“I won’t bore you with all of the details, but the TL;DR is that I spiralled. I relied heavily on alcohol, I turned down all of my job offers, and I crawled into a hole and hoped that I would die.”

“And I probably would have, if it weren’t for Lena Luthor. She read a paper I published in college and liked it enough to want me on her team. She tracked me down, found me washed up in some bar. I thought she was just some crazy bitch looking for a charity case, and I didn’t shy away from telling her as much. But she stuck around, got me cleaned up, and hired me.”

“She doesn’t treat me any differently than anyone else. She’s a godsend, and angel. I can honestly say that if not for Lena Luthor I would probably be dead right now. That or a prostitute. I was already considering that when she found me.” 

Maggie’s hand twitched at the thought of what had almost happened, but she managed to keep her face smooth.

“She’s tried to move me on to bigger and better things, I’m certainly smart enough for it, but every time I turn her down. I owe her everything. Being her assistant is the only way I know how to pay that back for right now. I’ll eventually move on and head up the astro department or something, but I’m not ready quite yet.”

She lapsed into silence for a moment before looking up at Maggie, whose eyes were shiny but face was thankfully tear free. “Well? Am I what you expected?”

Maggie smiled and leaned forward slightly in her seat. “You are one of the most incredible people I have ever had the pleasure of knowing.”

Jessica turned away and scoffed. “Didn’t have you pegged as a collector of damaged goods, Maggie.”

Maggie just shrugged. “Have you met who I spend my time with? Like attracts like, I guess.”

“Very reassuring. Aren’t you supposed to tell me I’m not damaged?”

“Why would I do that? Your life has sucked. It fucked you up. I see no reason to hide from the truth.”

Jessica opened her mouth to retort, but then she lapsed into thought for a second. “I… thank you. I think that’s exactly what I’ve been needing to hear. Everyone tries to tell me that it’ll get better, or that I’m resilient, or that they’re _sorry for my loss_. God it’s all so…”

“Infuriating?”

Jessica looked at Maggie as though seeing her in a new light. “Precisely. Infuriating.”

“Yeah, I get that. People suck.”

“They really do.”

\---

“Your empoyee people are so fun Auntie Lena!”

Lena shook her head in exasperation and hoped Maggie didn’t hate her later. They had been in the rainbow room, where Julie was developing an auto-painter and a few rainbow themed toy options, and Alex had somehow slipped away and gotten her hands on an emitter.

What followed was an intense rainbow war that Julie assured Lena halfway through could easily be cleaned up, and so got a bit more out of hand than Lena otherwise would have allowed. Everyone got involved, and by the end of a thirty minute fight every surface and person was covered in a barrage of colors. 

At Alex’s begging after the fight, Lena relented and let her stay rainbow. She got some of the easy removing soap from Julie, of course, but she could only imagine what Maggie’s face was going to be like. But whatever, that was a problem for future Lena. Present Lena was taking Alex to their final stop of the day-- the robotics tank.

She had actually been planning Alex’s visit to L-Corp for a while, so she had Sarah give one of the robots a custom paint job for Alex.

“Is that? Is that? IS THAT MUSHU?” Alex’s scream was enough for Lena to know that she had done well.

“It sure is! You want to drive him around?” Sarah exchanged a grin with Lena as they watched Alex stare slack jawed into the robotics tank. Which currently contained a small aquatic dragon robot painted and decorated to look very similar to Mushu.

“Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes!” 

Sarah handed Alex the remote and moved to stand by Lena.

“Oh my god she’s adorable. Who’s is she? If you don’t mind my asking, ma’am.”

“She’s my Big’s sister, and none of that ma’am stuff when we’re in an informal setting, Sarah, you know that.”

“Force of habit I guess.” Sarah smiled and relaxed just enough to be perceptible. 

“Take that you stupid Huns!”

Alex’s kept up a constant stream of Mulan references and quotes as she battled for the fate of China with her little Mushu. Soon enough though it was nearing time for Lena to get her back to her office before Maggie showed up, so she had to tear her away from her fun.

“Alex, sweetheart, it’s time to go.”

“Aww, do I have to?” Alex plopped down on the floor and looked so sad that Lena almost just let her stay and play. She didn’t know how Kara did it all the time, honestly. 

“I’m afraid so, darling. You Mama is going to be upstairs soon. Don’t you want to tell her all about your day? And show her your rainbows?”

Alex cast a longing look back at Mushu, but then she nodded to herself and stood up. “Bye bye Mushu!” 

She ran and handed the controller back to Sarah, who gave her a hug and told her to come back soon and that she would take care of Mushu for her.

Lena took Alex’s hand in hers and started back up to her office. Today had been a fantastic success.

\---

“Today wasn’t all that bad, Maggie.” Jessica turned around in front of her door to look down at Maggie, who was a step below her.

“Wow. Such high praise.” Maggie deadpanned.

Jessica rolled her eyes and said “It’s a compliment, jeesh.” At Maggie’s raised eyebrows she explained further. “With batting cages, cheap and awful food, and some thinly veiled flirting you managed to turn my day from absolutely terrible to not at all that bad. You should be proud.”

“Are we- Are we just going to ignore the ‘thinly veiled flirting’ comment?”

“Why? Am I wrong?” Jessica’s face was definitely teasing now and it made Maggie’s heart flutter in a way it hadn’t in a long time. 

“I…” Maggie met Jessica’s eyes. “I guess not, no.”

“Good.”

“We should do this again sometime. Soon.”

Jessica grinned in response. “Maybe with a few less tears next time.”

Maggie laughed. “Yeah, that would be okay with me.”

“Good.”

\---

When Maggie got to Lena’s office, and after Lena explained the whole rainbow thing and gave her the soap, she got a very critical look from Lena.

“Is Jessica okay?”

“Yeah” Maggie couldn’t help the small smile that popped up on her face. “Yeah, we had a good day.”

Lena’s eyebrow rose in surprise, but after a few moments her expression changed to one of understanding, and then one of intimidation. “If you hurt her, Sawyer, I’ll kick your ass.”

Maggie pulled Lena in for a hug and said “Noted.”

It would later turn out that Maggie’s prediction of hearing about everything for three days was actually a bit short sighted, as one week in she was still hearing about it several times a day from both little and adult Alex.

But she also had a date with Jessica on Thursday, so she wasn’t complaining all that much.


	10. A Wedding to Remember

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Funny story. I totally overextended myself with my outline for chapter 10, so instead of it being the final one you'll get a chapter 11 too.

“Aunt Lena, I’m scared.”

Lena walked over to where she found Alex hiding behind her bed and sat down beside her. “Can you tell me why?”

“I just- I just- I just scared.” Alex was breathing faster and pulled her knees toward her chest. Recognizing the signs of an impending meltdown, Lena scooted closer and put her arm around Alex’s shoulder.

“Because you don’t like Jessica?”

Alex shook her head and mumbled “I like her. She’s nice.”

“Hmm. Because you don’t think she makes your Mama happy?”

Again, Alex shook her head. “Mama smiles more.”

“Because things are changing and that’s scary?”

Alex sniffed, wiped her nose, and nodded. “I’m being a scaredy cat.”

“Oh sweetheart, you’re not being a scaredy cat. You’re just being human. Change can be really scary. It scares me all the time.”

That was enough to shock Alex into dropping her knees and looking at Lena. “You?”

“Yep. Me.”

“But- but you’re so scary!”

“Thank you?” Alex had been preoccupied with the whole people being scared of Lena thing since she visited L-Corp for the first time last year, and it seemed that now Lena had to adjust some conceptions. 

“You can be the scariest, most powerful person in the universe and still get scared sometimes though.” When she saw Alex’s disbelieving face, she kept talking. “I get scared all the time, Alex. I used to get scared even more before I had your Aunt Kara in my life.”

“Just yesterday when Jessica suggested we replace our ink supplier I got scared. What if it wasn’t as good? What if it was better and I regretted every time I didn’t make the change when I had the chance? Sure, it’s just ink, but what does it say about me as a leader if I could’ve been saving us thousands of dollars and I didn’t do it? And not even that, but are we printing too much? I know I care about the environment and already have a third of the footprint and paper consumption that other companies of comparable size have, but what if it’s still too much? Should I be looking at ink suppliers or cancelling the ink supply and putting my energy into devising a way to make our paper dependence zero? Is that sustainable? I mean, a lot of vital things are on paper--”

Lena cut off and looked down at Alex, who had just tugged on her sleeve with a confused and slightly exasperated face. Alex said “That’s all stupid.”

Lena chuckled lightly. “I agree, now. Well, mostly. But I spent several minutes sitting frozen before I was able to give Jessica an answer.”

“I get scared of everything, Alex. If I got that scared about changing ink suppliers can you imagine how much more scared I can get with big changes?”

“A lot.”

“Yeah, a lot. But sometimes the things you’re the most scared of turn out to be the best things ever.”

“Like what?”

Lena paused to think for a second before responding. “Like when I dropped for the first time. Like when I bonded with your Aunt Kara. I thank fate every day that I have her in my life, but when it first happened I was terrified of the change. Does that make sense?”

Alex turned so she was completely facing Lena. “I think so,” she slowly said. “Maybe my Mama prosing to Jessica will be a super good? Like when Aunt Kara and you bonded?”

“It’s certainly possible. But you won’t be able to find out one way or another if you’re hiding back here.”

Alex glanced at the door with a terrified expression.

“Your Mama won’t ask her if you don’t want her to. It’s your choice, Alex, but I want you to know that change isn’t always bad. Were you scared when you first met Mama?”

Alex nodded.

“Why?”

“Because she was everything so fast.”

Lena thought she understood. After all, Kara became the center of her universe in the span of less than a second and she felt like she would quite literally explode from the feeling. Sometimes she still felt like that.

“Because it was a lot of change. This is a lot of change too, I get it. But I’ll ask you again, do you like Jessica?”

Alex nodded.

“Does she make Mama happy?”

Alex nodded again.

“And the most important question; does she make you happy?”

A tear fell from Alex’s left eye and she nodded again before launching herself into Lena’s arms.

“It’s okay, sweetheart. I know your heart is doing big things right now. Take your time, and we’ll head out there when you’re ready. Together. Okay?”

Lena felt Alex’s head nod against her chest and she sat contently, rubbing her back. 

When they left the room ten minutes later they found Maggie anxiously pacing the hallway. Lena motioned for Maggie to stay where she was and nudged Alex forward a step. 

Alex held her hands together and said “I like Jessica. And she makes you happy. And she makes me happy. I’m scared, but Aunt Lena said it’s okay to be scared sometimes.”

Nodding to herself, Alex looked up and met Maggie’s eyes. “You should do it.”

Maggie nodded and opened her arms wide, and Alex wasted no time in throwing herself into them. “Thank you, bug.”

Three days later, Maggie dropped to one knee next to the table at family dinner while Alex watched and smiled. Jessica, crying happy tears and nodding enthusiastically, pulled Maggie up and kissed her soundly.

Alex, though happy and excited for Jessica to join the family, filled in with the requisite “Ewwww.” 

\---

When Maggie and Jessica’s wedding morning came around ten months later, everything was perfect. Jessica had been living with them for most of a year and, after the normal initial hiccups, fit into their family seamlessly. 

Kara delivered Jessica’s dress to her in her bride room where she had been playing with little Lena. Dropping off the garment bag, exchanging a few pleasantries, and then carrying the second garment bag and an octopus-ing Lena out of the room, Kara headed to Maggie’s room to deliver her tux. 

Walking into the room, Kara deposited Lena with Alex, who was sitting in a chair at the side of the room, and then hung up the garment bag on the nearby rack. “Alright, dress and tux have officially been delivered, what else do you need me to do?”

“If you don’t mind, I could use your help with--”

Maggie was cut off halfway through her request by a blue portal opening up two feet in front of her. Too startled to process quickly, she ended up punching the first thing that came through. That thing happened to be Cisco. 

Cisco hit the ground with a groan and mumbled out a pained “what the hell?” as Kara rushed forward to help him up. “Shoot. Sorry for Maggie, but in her defense a sudden portal in her private dressing room on her wedding day doesn’t exactly lead one _away_ from the punching instinct.”

Rubbing his jaw, Cisco looked around the room and threw Maggie an apologetic (and definitely tinged with fear) glance. “Didn’t realize it was a dressing room, sorry. Or your” he turned back to Kara “did you say wedding day?”

She nodded and he tacked on “Double sorry then.” Maggie shrugged as though to say no big deal, but she made a point not to apologize for punching him. 

“Cisco, not that I don’t like seeing you, but why are you here?” Alex stepped forward and joined the conversation. 

“We have a bit of a situation.”

Kara raised an eyebrow. “Situation?”

“Yeah, of the universe ending variety. Felicity and I have a plan, but we need all hands on deck to pull it off. Teams Arrow and Flash are already there, I’m getting you two,” he gestured at Kara and Alex, “and the Legends are disentangling themselves from the Stone Age or whenever they are as fast as Sara can make them.”

Alex looked apologetically at Maggie, but Maggie nodded at her and smiled. “You do what you need to do, I trust you. And besides, I can’t have a wedding anyway if there’s no universe left.”

“If all goes well I’ll have them back in about three hours. Should be plenty of time to still have your wedding today” Cisco chimed in.

Lena sat quietly in the chair Alex had left her in, and Kara made her way over there, knowing she had to be scared. They had gotten to a place where Kara could leave the planet or dimension and not cause mass-scale breakdown, but even so it was never an easy experience. 

Kara kneeled in front of the chair and took Lena’s face in her hands. “Lena, sweetheart, I have to go help my friend, okay?”

Lena nodded.

“He said it’ll only take a few hours, and then me and Aunt Alex will be back and we can watch Aunties Maggie and Jessica get married, okay?”

Lena nodded again and asked “Mommy saf?”

Kara leaned forward and gave her a prolonged forehead kiss. “Mommy will try her very hardest to be safe, I promise. I’ll go kick the bad guy butt and then be right back. I’m super fast, remember?”

Laughing, Lena nodded and gave Kara another hug.

“Will you be my sweet girl and help Aunt Maggie and Aunt Jessica get ready while I’m gone? They’re going to need you if I’m not here.”

Lena sat up proudly and nodded enthusiastically. “I hep I hep!”

“You’ll be the best helper ever, Lena. I have lots of jobs for you.” Maggie tossed in from across the room and Kara cast her a grateful look before extracting herself from Lena and walking back to Alex and Cisco. 

“I love you Lena, and I’ll see you in a bit.”

“Wuv Mommy!” Lena grinned back at her, seemingly cheered up a lot by the prospect of helping Maggie.

“And I,” Maggie stepped up to Alex and grabbed her face, “love you. So you better not go and do anything crazy.” 

Alex rolled her eyes and sarcastically responded “Okay, mom.”

Maggie just smiled and kissed her forehead with a loud smack, which Alex jokingly rubbed off. 

Cisco then opened the portal again and Kara and Alex hopped through it with him.

\---

Maggie, Jessica, and the rest of their helpers managed to keep Lena busy with a million small tasks while they got the brides ready themselves. Maggie knew it was possible that they wouldn’t make the three hour time hack, but she also knew that if she dwelled on it too long then she would just drive herself crazy with worry. So she proceeded as normal. 

Or, as normal as someone can proceed on their wedding day when their little and her sister were off in another dimension fighting who knows what. 

Three hours came and went, and Maggie was starting to get worry. She had just gotten off the phone with Jessica (as, yes, _logically_ she would say the not seeing the bride before the wedding thing was bullshit, but she didn’t want to take any chances), who had tried to calm her down and told her not to worry too much. They still had nearly an hour before the ceremony was supposed to start, after all, and it was only 15 minutes past three hours. 

At thirty minutes past the hour, just as Maggie was about to call Jessica again, another portal opened in front of her. This time, thankfully, she was prepared enough not to punch what came through. 

Kara came through first, leading Alex, Sara, Felicity, and Barry. “Hope you don’t mind, Maggie. I invited a few friends.”

Maggie rolled her eyes and said “Of course not, Danvers.”

“Mama you look so pretty!” Alex, obviously dropped, gasped in wonder as she looked at Maggie in her deep blue tux. Ecstatic to see Alex safe and unharmed, it took Maggie a second to recognize that she was holding hands with some blonde woman unknown to her. 

“Thank you bug! Who’s your friend?”

The blonde woman stepped forward and almost immediately Maggie realized that in that moment she wasn’t a woman at all, but a dropped little. Who somewhat worryingly still had some weaponry strapped to her back and thighs. 

“Hi! I’m Sara.” Sara stuck out her hand formally, and adorably, for Maggie to shake. 

Maggie smiled and took it. “How do you do, Sara?”

“I’m the goodest! Thanks for letting us come watch.”

“Anything for a friend,” there was a decisive uncertain tilt to that word, “of Alex.”

After exchanging a few more pleasantries and briefly recapping the mission, Kara took Lena and went to go update and help Jessica with final prep, Alex stayed with Maggie, and the other worldly guests went to sit in the crowd. 

“How was the mission, bug?”

“Fun!” Alex pouted as she added “Sara stabbed my bad guy before I could though.”

Maggie, both worried and amused, merely said “Oh?”

“Yeah.” Unable to keep a pout, Alex went back to smiling as quickly as it had gone. “Sara has lots of knives. She let me play with some too!”

“While you were little?” Maggie asked in a shocked voice.

“No,” the little girl said with another pout. “She said knives are for big girls. And then Felicity said that she should member her own advice, whatever that means.”

“Felicity is smart, that’s good advice for little girls.”

Just then the event coordinator stuck her head in the room and said “It’s time.”

Maggie took a few deep breaths and stood up. “Well bug, you ready?”

“Yeah! You’ll do great Mama, don’t worry.” 

And even though Maggie said “I’m not worried,” she visibly relaxed upon hearing Alex’s reassurance.

\---

“I never imagined I could find someone. Not just someone like you, though yeah you’re pretty great,” Maggie chuckled as she listened to Jessica’s vows, “but anyone at all. I know what rock bottom is, and if you went back in time and told that version of me that I would one day be wearing this dress and standing here… Well, I don’t know exactly what I would’ve done, but it wouldn’t have involved believing you. And yet I am here. I’m standing here in front of the most wonderful, understanding, strong, _amazing_ woman I have ever and will ever meet, and for some crazy reason she chose me. I love you more than I know how to convey, Maggie Sawyer, and I will spend every second of every day for the rest of my life showing you just how much I do. I look forward to today and all the next days with you and Alex. You’re my family, the family I probably don’t deserve, but I’ll be damned if anyone ever tries to take you away.”

“Shit” Maggie mumbled as she wiped at her eyes. “I said I wouldn’t cry.” She looked at the officiator, who happened to be J’onn, and said “Oh shit it’s my turn now too. Okay hold on.”

Maggie reached into her pocket and pulled out a card, took a few deep breaths, and then opened her mouth. “I wasn’t looking for a wife, or a girlfriend, or someone to love. I was strong, and independent, and wasn’t going to get caught up in all that petty drama. But sometimes, a lot of times really, the best things happen when we aren’t expecting them. Like when I bonded with Alex, and when I fell in love with you. Somewhere in that day at the batting cages I knew you were the one for me. That you were the one who could understand me, who could love me, and who I suspected could be another mother to Alex. As time went on that was only confirmed, and I really think they need to invent a new word for how I feel about you, because love barely begins to encapsulate it. You’re my person, and I’m beyond lucky you let me be yours.”

“Goddamnit, Sawyer. Now I’m crying.” Jessica wiped her eyes frustratedly and smiled at Maggie. 

“I have encountered a lot in my life, both on Earth and off it, and through it all I can tell you that there has been one constant. In every planet, and among every people, love is present. Finding your person, as Maggie said, is a profound and awe inspiring thing. Love is to be honored and revered, and I am confident that these two women are more than capable of doing just that.”

“With that being said, Alex, would you bring the rings forward?”

Alex proudly walked up and Maggie gave her a kiss on the head before taking Jessica’s ring off the pillow. 

“If you’ll repeat after me,” J’onn said.

“With this ring”

“With this ring”

“I give you all that I am”

“I give you all that I am” Maggie said tearfully as she started sliding the ring onto Jessica’s finger. 

“And all that I ever hope to be.”

“And all that I ever hope to be.” The ring hit the end of Jessica’s finger and her and Maggie stared into each other’s eyes until J’onn mumbled “it’s your turn” to Jessica.

Jessica grabbed Maggie’s ring from Alex’s pillow and repeated the same process. When it was done, the women stood holding hands and J’onn finished the ceremony with “I now pronounce you married. You may kiss your bride.”

The crowd erupted in cheers as Maggie and Jessica kissed deeply. When they parted, grinning, they each grabbed one of Alex’s hands and started leading her back up the aisle. 

Together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 11 should be longer than this one. I cut it here because it was kind of a natural stopping point, as the plot for 11 is basically all post-wedding and some future projection.


End file.
